The sounds of panicked shouting came from ahead, echoing in the misty valley. It was hard to tell exactly what they were saying, especially with all the noise she herself was making, but Jadis got the distinct impression that the bandits weren’t happy with the path she’d chosen for climbing the hill. Good. The less happy the bastards were, the better. It meant things weren’t going how they planned, which suited Jadis just fine.
It did, however, sound like there were a lot more people than any of them had expected waiting on the top. That was less good, but she’d handle the situation as it came. They were almost at the top, anyway, which meant the real fighting was about to start. It was too late to back out, not without risking a concentrated counterattack. She’d just have to hit the bastards hard enough to either make them surrender or run.
“Signal the others,” Jay ordered Kerr as she hefted up another log. “We’re going in.”
“On it,” Kerr snapped back as she switched one arrow out from another.
A moment later Kerr shot, arching the arrow high over the village. The projectile let out a high-pitched whistle thanks to a notched piece of wood tied to the shaft, letting the rest of the team know to come around the way they’d come. In the next moment, Kerr had nocked a plain arrow onto her bow and shot it as well, this time aiming it off to the right. The pained cry of man a second later proved the therion’s aim was true even with low visibility.
“Here we go,” Syd growled as she marched forward. “Stay right behind me.”
“Yes,” Aila answered shortly, followed by Kerr’s barked acknowledgement. “We’re ready.”
Jay hurled the several hundred-pound log ahead of her, letting it crash and clatter across the stones of the stream that flowed down the southern side of the hill. As expected, another trap was triggered, this time a spiked wooden grid that swung up from the ground. It would have smashed against the legs and lower torso of anyone who had stepped there, crippling them at a minimum. But the log Jay had thrown had set off whatever mechanism was designed to trigger it, causing the trap to be wasted, same as the last handful.
Syd carried the massive barricade-like shield forward, knocking the trap over and crushing it underfoot. The wood splintered and broke, making the way safe for Aila and Kerr to follow behind. As she trampled the vicious construction, she crested the top of the hill, reaching the flat top of the dam that kept the water in the pond. Jadis’ mind flashed back to the day months ago that she had seen the bone thief matriarch crest over the hill in the exact same place that she was now. From the sound of things, the bandits were experiencing similar feelings to those she had back then.
Dys pushed forward then, her own giant barricade-shield to the fore. She took up position next to Syd, creating a wall of thick, reinforced wood that couldn’t easily be breached by anyone who didn’t have strength comparable to her own. As she and Syd came abreast of each other, Jay gathered up a large rock that likely weighed more than Aila and Kerr put together, ripping the stone straight out of the dirt. Using it like a bowling ball, she hurled it forward, Dys and Syd opening up a gap between their barricades for just the perfect moment to let the stone pass before snapping shut.
The huge rock bounced across the ground in a loud clatter before suddenly disappearing, the earth beneath it falling away in to reveal a pit trap.
“You were right,” Jay told Kerr as she repositioned her war hammer to rest on the ground behind her. “No pit traps on this side of the hill, way too steep. But as soon as the ground leveled out—”
“Pit traps in open spaces,” Aila nodded. “Push forward so you can put the pit on one side or another of the shield wall. It’ll help funnel them once they attack.”
“Got it,” Jay said as she hurled another boulder, making sure the new path ahead was clear of traps.
Kerr let loose another arrow, a cry of pain marking another bandit shot. She ducked back behind Dys’ right side, the sound of arrows impacting the shield following a second later. The points didn’t even fully penetrate the thick wood.
“There!” Aila shouted, pointing at the frozen pond.
A figure had been trying to sneak around them, using the thick mist for cover. Jay scooped up another huge rock and hurled it at the bow-wielding shadow. The bandit dove out of the way of the rock, but the thrown projectile still hit the ice nearby, cracking it with a spectacular crash and splash. The man on the ice let out a terrified yelp before plunging into the frozen water.
With the threat neutralized, Jadis put the struggling bandit out of her mind. Until they took out the wand-wielding goblin, they were going to keep pushing forward, slow and steady. No one had any doubt that she would be the target of the witch’s spell, so rushing forward in a charge was a doubly bad idea, especially when taking into account all the traps that had been laid. So, instead of being fucking dipshits and running in blindly, they’d come up with a quick plan once they’d realized they were dealing with the same bandits as before.
Push forward, slow and steady, with a shield wall, tripping all the traps they could along the steep southern side of the hill where the potential for traps was least. Jadis would be their wall while the others would handle any offense. Even if the fucking goblin got her with the spell, she’d still be doing her job acting as a defensive shield for her companions while she was frozen. Once the goblin showed herself to cast the spell, Aila or Kerr would take them out at range. Then Jadis would be free to go on the attack.
Not that Jadis had to lay back entirely while acting as a mobile fortification.
As Dys and Syd positioned themselves a little further into the hilltop, getting closer to buildings while keeping the pit trap on Syd’s left, Jay gathered up more rocks of varying sizes. Sure, her hammer or axe or lance were all powerful weapons that she’d rather be using, but a big rock could still do a lot of damage. Jay started hurling the rocks over the top of the barrier, aiming to hit the stone buildings.
The stones crashed against the old stone workshops, bouncing and breaking against the walls. Some were large enough, though, that they broke through the walls, prompting shouts of alarm and even a few screams of pain. One stone that had to weigh three hundred pounds if it weighed anything crashed through the roof of one of the buildings, causing the whole roof to collapse down onto whoever was inside.
“They’re here,” Kerr said as she shot more arrows.
Jay looked back, seeing that the rest of her companions had come the long way around up the hill, rushing to catch up along the path they’d made safe. Seeing that they had made it up the hill, Dys and Syd briefly locked the barricades in place. With the improvements Sabina had made to them, the barricades were able to stand on their own with the leg struts pulled out. Dys’ axe and Syd’s lance had been strapped to their respective shields, again thanks to the clever design Sabina had incorporated. Pulling their weapons free, Dys and Syd got ready for the bandits to push back.
Arrows were shot at her team as they crested the hill, several bouncing off of Thea’s shield as she led the way. One arrow struck Bridget, sticking in her armor though she kept moving, paying the projectile sticking out of her shoulder no mind. She and Thea made sure to keep their bodies between the shooters and Eir and Sabina, those two being the most vulnerable. Though not entirely without defense. Sabina had quickly knocked together two makeshift wooden shields from the tops of crates, which she and Eir were using to help block any ranged attacks.
As Jadis had expected, as soon as they saw more people coming up the hill, the bandits tried to push back. A dozen men wielding a variety of weapons, from swords to spears to clubs, charged out from cover. They rushed to attack the group led by Thea, trying to keep them from getting to the cover that Jadis’ barricade provided.
Unfortunately for them, to get to Thea and the others, that meant they had to pass close to Jadis first.
With a roar, Jay swung out from behind the barrier, her hammer swinging in a wide horizontal arch. The bandits had tried to spread out, but their own traps now worked against them, forcing where they could safely step without being caught in them. Her hammer struck one man full on while a second was caught by the shaft. The first man was obliterated, the spike trap Aila had put on the hammerhead activating and shredding the man’s upper body while the force of the hammer blow turned what was left of him into a splattered paste. The second man was marginally luckier since being hit by the hammer shaft meant he wasn’t killed outright and instead knocked down onto his back. Only marginally luckier, though, since a second later Syd put her lance through his head.
Dys’ axe swung from the right side, catching a man in the chest. Her axe cut through his steel chest plate, then his chest, passing clean through to the other side. He collapsed in a heap, halfway bisected as his lungs and other organs spilled out onto the ground. Dys kicked the body away, sending it tumbling down the hill so it didn’t become a tripping hazard underfoot, then moved back behind cover.
Jadis wasn’t the only one to attack, either. Kerr’s bow sang as she shot arrows at the exposed men, killing two with as many arrows. Aila took out three with her Arcane Dart Spray, the cone of arcane darts piercing the men who had gotten within range, shredding the exposed parts of their bodies like paper. Another man dropped as well from a well-aimed bolt, Sabina having carried her huge crossbow up with her.
Before Jay could fully pull back behind cover, it happened. All the muscles in her body clenched up in pain as she was paralyzed. The witch had gotten her with the damned paralyzing spell. Jadis was helpless to do anything as all three of her selves froze, unmoving and unable to do anything about the three remaining bandits that had managed to reach the barrier.
A man wielding a large, spiked club swung on Jay, her body halfway behind cover and frozen in an awkward stance. His weapon slammed into Jay’s side with a loud clang. Fortunately, Jay’s armor was so thick that the spikes barely scratched the surface, doing her no damage at all. However, the blow was still strong enough to knock her unbalanced body over, sending Jay crashing to the ground, unable to catch herself due to the paralyzing spell.
A second later the man screamed in agony as Bridget’s lantern flail smashed against his shoulder, the arcane flames burning him as they flared brightly. The bandit swung back at her, but Bridget easily countered, the reach on her polearm greater than his club. She struck him again, the flail head swinging over his attempt to block with his club to strike against his helmeted head. He fell back, screaming as the flames burned his face, only for his screams to be cut short as Aila blasted him away with an arcane bolt.
Thea’s spear struck one man as another bashed against her shield with an axe, the blade deflecting against the curved surface. With a powerful shove, Thea sent the axe man stumbling back, far enough that she was able to turn on the first man and pierce his leg with her spear. An arrow suddenly appeared in the man’s side, Kerr getting another shot off.
The bandit Thea had shoved snarled and hurled his axe, this time aiming it at the most vulnerable target he had available to him. The axe spun through the air, Jadis watching it through the corner of Syd’s eye since she still could not move, unable to do anything to stop the deadly weapon from reaching its target. The axe came within inches of Aila’s head before it abruptly stopped, bouncing away as something nearly invisible blocked it.
Aila held up one hand, having cast her Force Shield just in time to stop the axe from reaching her. She calmly pointed her other hand at the man who’d thrown the axe and without so much as a blink cast another force bolt, knocking the man backwards and sending him crashing down the pitfall behind him. Jadis could hear a crunch as his body hit the bottom. She briefly wondered if there were spikes down there or not. She hadn’t had the chance to check.
Pain burned through Dys’ side, a terrible and familiar burning sensation that she could do nothing about.
“Why the fuck are all three of you freaks frozen, eh?” Legs said as he dragged his glowing blade through Dys’ armor.
“Who cares, just kill them!” the fat bastard with the spiked chain said as he came from around Legs’ side, swinging his weapon at Kerr’s exposed back.
As the two bandits attacked from the right side, a voice Jadis didn’t recognize spoke from just above Jay. She couldn’t see the woman, having fallen over and her helmet limiting her peripheral vision. What she heard, though, made her skin crawl.
“So these are the giants, huh? I can’t wait to see how their blood looks on my skin…”
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