*Lemmy’s POV*

The thing about battles was that they went by really actually quite quickly. In the blink of an eye, a few hours at most, everything was decided. But the consequences stayed with you forever afterwards.

I tried to refocus my mind as I jogged down the path, amid the swarm of tribesmen, the Council Guard surrounding me as though I were a helpless infant. So the trolls had come for the Soul again, but this time, we had an ace up our sleeves.

I’d left Ozz in the Village, surrounded by so many fucking Assassins it would take a force of nature to get through to him. Good thing, too, as he was looking like shit. The shard was taking its heavy toll on him, and I knew exactly how that felt. I still hadn’t recovered, I could tell by how hard it was to sustain the pace I was holding.

Undeterred, I kept plodding on. I didn’t want to enter a Berserker fugue, not yet, not when I still needed to have a clear head. But when the time came, I would make a better decoy if I were out of control. I’d have to calculate the moment carefully.

The Walls came into view, and I could see we were already engaged. I raised my old blade, Hellraiser, and shouted at the top of my lungs, “For the Soul!” A cheer ran through the tribesmen trotting alongside me. It made my heart feel lighter, knowing I was sharing the burden of the defense of the Soul of the Forest with such fine warriors.

---

“What the fuck, Jake?” I got straight to the point, the moment he was in view. I was admittedly irritable. Angela had insisted I wait for the First Officer of the Day Watch to come down to me, instead of letting me mount the Walls, to get a view of the situation for myself.

He bowed his head formally, and I snorted, impatient. “Elder. There is a force several thousand trolls strong, with a few hundred ogres that appear to be providing aid. There have been no siegecraft spotted, but they’re carrying a battering ram-“

My heart sank a little. Ogres and a battering ram were no paltry matter. “-We must boil them the moment they are within range with that thing. Man the machicolations above the gate with scorching hot water or oil; be ready to focus all artillery on those that hold the ram!” I saw Anna and Danny running off in either direction to carry out my orders. “Be prepared!”

Again, I moved to climb the steps, but Angela tugged on my arm and shook her head. Gods! How irritating! I hated being coddled!

It was at times like these, I missed my old pal, Wendy. Long before my time as Elder, we had led the Berserkers together. She had been killed in the troll raid three years ago. To this day, no battle had ever been the same. She would have been out, running through their ranks, screaming obscenities by now! Look what a fuddy-duddy I’d become!

---

*Andrew’s POV*

I caught a snippet of Elder Lemmy talking to Jake as I approached. Something I almost missed struck me as curious. Why would such a massive army have no siegecraft? Eliza placed a hand on my arm, “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. “Well, there’s an attacking army, for starters.” She sniffed at my bad joke.

I watched Lemmy, Blasko, James, and Jake walk away together, still talking. They were doubtlessly looking for Siouxise. I had noticed it was taking the Night Watchmen the longest to arrive, and I was a little embarrassed.

I looked at Eliza. “Right now, unfortunately, there’s nothing much we can do. Though the Wild Ones have engaged with ranged weapons, us two can’t make much of an impact from here with swords and an axe.”

I frowned. I didn’t like being inactive when I could hear the sounds of the occasional Watchman getting wounded, of people in pain. I saw the Healers had arrived, at the least. “I want to get a good look at the force that’s coming at us. Follow me and stay behind the crenellations.”

Eliza followed me up the stumble steps, and I noticed something curious immediately. There was virtually no ranged fire coming up, over the Walls. I peeked quickly around a crenellation and noticed that hardly any of the trolls were firing ranged weapons! Those that were, were all firing on the archery towers; a generally fruitless endeavor, with the protection they afforded. Most of the trolls were shouting, bashing their shields, or even doing nothing at all.

Something wasn’t right. What in the nine hells was going on?

I spotted the ogres approaching, carrying the battering ram. Though at first I felt dread ball in my stomach, after a moment, I realized the ram itself wasn’t that impressive. Could ogres really compensate that much with their own strength?

The ogres entered the pomery, approached the Gates, and then… set the battering ram down? I watched, transfixed, as they leaned together over it, making a bridge. Large trolls, doubtlessly Juggernauts, came filing underneath the ogres and I could just see them lifting the ram.

Shit! The ogres weren’t making a bridge, they were forming a living shield!

I shouted to Eliza, “Come with me!” I went down the steps as quickly as I was able, looking for any First Officer I could find.

I spotted Blasko the quickest, and trotted over to him. “The ogres are forming a living shield over the battering ram!”

Blasko raised an eyebrow. “The Elder’s order still stands, we’ll just have to cook their ogre shield, then.”

I wanted to protest, even though that made perfect sense. Something just didn’t feel right.

---

*Jake’s POV*

I waited until the Juggernauts had backed up for their first strike. “Steady…” A few seconds before impact, I gave the signal, “Now!”

Boiling oil was tipped out of the cauldron, through the machicolation, and onto the backs and necks of the interlaced ogres. Just as I began to hear their screams, you could feel the reverberation as the ram struck the Gates, “BOOM!”

To my shock, even the badly wounded ogres still held their ground, remaining braced against each other. What the deuce? I saw some of the incapacitated Juggernauts being swiftly replaced, and prepared to give the order for the second cauldron, gesturing for Ariel the Dawn Watchman to work on refilling the first. We only had four cauldrons, damn it!

---

*Andrew’s POV*

I decided that Eliza and I were best utilized organizing a systematic flush of any possibly remaining kobolds using all the Watchmen that weren’t carrying ranged weapons. No one was to go too far, as the Gates could, conceivably, fall at any moment.

After plotting routes around the Wall, making special use of the largely very frightened Initiates, some forty Watchmen were sent to their designated areas to check for the little buggers, all informed what to look for. I was just considering what to do with Eliza and myself, when a garter snake fleeing the fray caught my eye. I turned to Eliza, “Let’s go to the shrine and check on Vas and the Soul.”

On our way there, we both heard and felt the first impact of the battering ram with the Gates. “BOOM!” The feeling of something being terribly off only increased.

Notes

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