The date had arrived at long last, and as was to be expected, the elves and plantoids of the Arcfiran Confederated Tribes made the first move. Despite the fact that some of their number had arrived at least a week before the battle was set to start, they had done nothing in the way of preparing for this conflict.

Had they gone out of their way to repair the bridges? No. Had they gone out of their way to secure better positions? No. Had they even attempted to split up their mased numbers into smaller, more easily maneuverable groups that would allow them to strike from multiple avenues at the same time? Once again, the answer was a resounding ‘No’.

Like a bunch of useless and utterly incompetent idiots, they were only just now trying to split up, trying to cross multiple bridges and fords in the myriad rivers at the same time, and the way they were going about that was just as pathetically moronic as their previous lack of actions up to this point. As any person with even so much as a lick of common sense will tell you, having multiple formations of troops use bridges that have not seen maintenance in decades at best is a recipe for disaster, and this is especially true if you try and cross those bridges with more than on hundred-strong formation at a time.

Sure, the bridges were wide enough, and they could fit two lines of roughly 150 total walking next to each other so long as they were in two lines each around 5-6 men wide, but they were most definitely not compatible with that weight limit right now. Back in their heyday? Back then, they could have easily let that many people cross all at once. Now, though?

Now the decaying woodwork was creaking and groaning under the strain, with boards beginning to buckle even as only around 1/3rd of those two combined formations mad their way onto the bridge. The weight was too much, as was the strain caused by the rhythmic thumping of feet upon them, and it was only a matter of time until something gave out and the whole thing fell apart and went down into the waters below.

And, of course, as you would expect by now, the bridges did eventually give way, even while people were still slowly crossing them. Whether by divine providence or by sheer dumb luck, the bridges somehow managed to hold out just long enough for a bulk of the ACT forces to cross, but immediately after that happened the first of the supports holding them in place shattered, which in turn started a chain reaction of complete structural failure.

Just a few tens short of a thousand elves fell into the waters below, but at least these people knew how to swim. Thankfully for them, the water was not rushing along and actually had a slight chill rather than being cripplingly cold. There was, however, just one small detail that rendered those that fell into the water completely and royally fucked.

And that detail was that the waterways were being patrolled by no small number of Naga, who really, really wanted to have some ‘fun’ with the hostile party that had just so happened to fall into their territory. It was only a few minutes after they fell into the water that more than 78% of the elves ended up below the waves, either dead or taken as captives by the Naga. Those that did make it out were either mostly unharmed or were heavily wounded, with their being no other outcomes besides those two options rendered applicable for them.

The plantoids, though, had a much better time with their crossings, as they went through the shallows. Knowing full well that their weight was more than the bridges could handle, they escaped the crossings with only a few losses, and those were mostly due to a few Naga popping up to sling spells at the marching tree and shrub people.

They were tightly packed together as they crossed, which made them perfect targets for AoE spells. It only took a single [Fireball] or [Lightning Sphere] spell to kill more than ten at a time, and it was a heavily target rich environment. It was, essentially, nigh impossible to miss, and as a result the shallow water crossings became a sort of short-term killing field, though not to the extent that some would have liked.

But, eventually, the ACT forces made the crossing, and now were forced to deal with an entirely different nightmare. The Great Tree had chosen this battlefield rather poorly, s the numerous pons made the act of trying to maneuver properly an absolute pain in the ass for an attacker. Darksol, of course, had taken full advantage of this, setting up no shortage of impediments and annoyances, both lethal and non-lethal, inside every possible approach to their position.

Landmines, punji traps, bear traps, caltrops, random divots, razorwire and much, much more rendered any attempted assault an act that would bleed the foe to an absurd degree, and that was not counting the Naga who would, at random intervals and places, pop up out of the water and sling a spell or two. But those were not the only dangers that the ACT forces had to face. By crossing the bridges and fords, they now were in range of the bigger artillery pieces that Darksol had brought to the field.

Almost as soon as the enemy had gotten only a few tens of meters away from the fords, the howitzers opened up, all of them firing at will. Likewise, the undead versions of those artillery pieces also began to fire, unleashing no small dosages of terror and pain alike among the elves and plantoids. Rockets rained down in an indiscriminate and unrecognizable series of random patterns as HE, Incendiary and Chemical shells fell like a deadly rain, all of them urging, no, forcing the elves and their plantoid masters to move faster, move deeper into the nightmare that they had willingly walked right into.

But as the ACT forces move closer, they only found more death awaiting them. They left their dead behind as they moved, completely oblivious to the fact that the shells and rockets that were still hitting those areas that they had passed through had changed their payloads. Eve if the elves and plantoids tried to turn and run, they would only be able to get so far, so quickly. After all, their former comrades, those who had fallen, were now getting back up. But not as allies.