The Fire & The Fury Pt. 4

The centurion sent a report to tribune Brimstone informing him of the recapture of most of the southern Iron Marches, and that from what he had learned from his recon with the Whispers his three battalions were about equal to the flame legion that were attacking Monger’s Sink. Scattered Iron and Ash units had begun to arrive; Grim sent them to round up more hunting hounds from the humans, and to do the apologizing for his Blood Legion units trashing their capital. Heh.

The tribune acknowledged and replied that the centurions units were effective and flame legion had sent reinforcements up his way, opening the door for Rytlock’s southern assault. So in order to take some pressure off the centurion, Brimstone ordered the 9th battalion defending the north road entrance from Iron Marches to Ashford Plain, to reinforce Steeleye Span in Blazeridge Steppes through the Dragonwatch road, west of the fort.

Grimcrotch also sent the three war wagons and three of the six tanks Ruinbringer had ordered him to have, with the 9th going to Steeleye. He already had three war wagons, and much of the area left here wasn’t suited for that number. The driver of the banged up wagon, ‘Lefty’ Ironpaw, insisted he stay with the centurion because, he said ‘…this is where I was sent. And if I let you idiots fight for the centurion alone you’ll get him killed. So stay out of my way and learn, cubs.’

Centurion Grimcrotch in his Whispers gear

As Grimcrotch returned from his recon with the Whispers, he heard Lefty giving a quick tutorial to the other wagon drivers, telling them how to patch up sliced cables and other useful tidbits by simply jumping out of the vehicle and unloading their Charrzooka on the enemy. Charr logic.

And the gem, ‘Cut up their corpses, tie body parts to the front of the wagon and smear the blood on it. When they see a blood soaked war wagon they piss themselves, HAHAHA!’ he said, his flat-faced grin squeezing the life out of a still burning cigar stub. Grim quietly chuckled as he walked off to change gear.

The plan was to use the abduction and killing of the flame legion Harvester’s Glade defense to lure some of them away from the fort, drawing them into the rocky cliffs to be taken out. When that was done and Harvester’s Glade secure, the war wagons with the 2nd were to pound a way through to the fort front door so they could receive supplies and reinforcement, while the 12th and two tanks went clockwise with them, and the 4th with four tanks went counter.

The soldiers left in the fort had taken their toll on the enemy. From an earlier high estimate of four hundred flame legion, the now seventy four Blood Legion had taken out about one hundred enemy, and were still at it, but ammo had been rationed long ago so every shot had to count. After a week of hammering, Monger’s Sink Blood Legion defense had only lost six soldiers, two dead four wounded.

——

The Shredskin warband roamed between Hellion Forest and Lamprey Grottoes, after the Harvester’s Glade flame legion defense was taken out and dealt with as they were. Those dogs were soldiers, Grim thought. Once again flame legion has been found torturing our soldiers. ‘They got what was coming,’ he mumbled to himself as he looked on at the barbaric scene before him. Flame legion corpses slid down onto speared branches, many heads exploded, some still twitching.

Having not heard from their forward party at Harvester’s Glade in a while, a flame legion warband went to the village to check things out and saw the blood trail going off into the hills, then ran back to the main force at Monger’s Sink. Minutes later nearly one hundred flame legion broke away from attacking the fort and headed toward the village. Shredskin’s warband returned to inform the centurion.

Grim had the 4th Battalion position at the northern tip of Bloodfin Lake staying out of sight, while his 12th stayed in the tricky cliffs to be the bait and draw them out into the open. He had the war wagons of the 2nd Battalion across Ironhead Lake aim near the dog cages. Things had to move quickly, the flame legion had taken notice and were slowly dribbling toward the 2nd. As flame legion passed the dog cages and the bulk of them were in the target area…

Standing on the highest cliff of the Ironhead Lake side, the centurion silently raised his longbow above his head; a second later there was a shout at the war wagons, and all three unloaded a devastating combination of grapeshot and explosive ball, then 4th Battalion flanked their left while the Bloody Twelfth headed straight into them with a hail of lead and swords. An entire flame legion battalion wasted in minutes. Grim smiled to himself.

——

‘ON TO MONGER’S SINK, BLOOD LEGION!!’ the centurion roared. A cheer went up all across Iron Marches. Nothing to hide now, the wagons turned and unloaded directly on the flame legion attacking the fort. The 2nd Battalion held the enemy off the war wagons long enough for the 12th to arrive, then they both pushed forward to get entangled in a huge bloody mass in front of the fort bridge, after the flame legion troops refused to give ground.

The 4th Battalion’s four tanks targeted several dug-in embankments, blasting the dirt walls clear so the inhabitants could be picked off. They cleared around the fort, then joined in the melee at the front of the bridge as it wound down, just as several Iron and Ash legion warbands arrived. ‘You’re late, no cookies for you.’ Dinky said to them with a smirk, wiping his blade on a corpse.

The centurion, breathing heavily and covered in blood, reached down to pull his second axe out of a flame legion head and paused, looking around in awe at the fields of death he left behind. This can be addicting, he thought. ‘Alright, listen up! Get our charr and corpses together, figure out which is which, patch up the ones that are breathing. Reinforce the fort with soldiers and supplies, then head to Hellion Forest to set up camp for the night. Tomorrow we hit Blazeridge Steppes.’ Another cheer from the victors carried across the map.

Monger’s Sink, after being cleared of the flame legion threat

Grim holstered his axes then strode to a small creek, bent down and began splashing his head and body along with many other soldiers doing the same. Between several soldier legs three small cubs carrying flowers ran up to him. A female spoke up, ‘These are for you, sir. You help us so much in Stonesheath but we don’t have anything we can give you, only these nice flowers.’ She smiled while handing him her flowers along with the other two cubs.

‘No need, cubs, but thank you,’ he said, patting her on the head. ‘Just remember when this happened and what the flame legion did here when you are grown. And make sure they are repaid in spades.’ The centurion wiped his face with a cloth, took the flowers, then saluted the cubs, and all three cubs saluted him smartly in return, then ran off back toward the village.

Grim walked over by Dinky, Shredskin, Fyon, and Wrathclaw discussing his new warband member Lefty Ironpaw, backhanded Dinky in the chest with his flowers hand and said, ‘Put these in some water somewhere.’ Dinky looked down at them, then back up at Grimcrotch with a ‘You’re joking, right’ look. Grim tapped him a couple more times with his backhand, indicating he was serious. ‘Alright, alright, I’m going…..’ he mumbled, walking toward some supplies for anything resembling a vase. My best friend is a softy, I can’t believe it, he thought.

‘….he kept pissing off all my gunners calling them cubs, saying they couldn’t hit a target if someone else did it for them. Kept driving me crazy saying he had to fight for the Centurion ‘cuz everyone was green,’ Wrathclaw said. ‘So I did two things to make everyone happy; I took him in my warband to shut him the hell up, on the condition to the soldiers they don’t fight him ’til this mess is over, hehe.’ The little flat-faced wagon driver stood back and did the charr threat, then popped in and stoked on his never-ending cigar stub and crossed his arms with a grin, while Grim and the legionnaires laughed.