Chương 81: Ambush

Twenty horses galloping at full speed was louder than I was expecting. We kicked up a rooster-tail of snow behind us, until we reached the boglands. The horses were louder, but we didn't create such a wake behind us. As the sun rose, it reflected off the patches of ice, giving the boglands speckles of red and pink as far as the eye could see. We reached the tracks on time. It was still dark enough that we'd blend into the horizon until we got closer.

Better yet, the orcs would be expecting an attack from the north—or perhaps the south, if troops landed on the shores to help us (which was unlikely, I figured, but the orcs didn't know that). If we came from directly behind, we stood the best chance. After a few minutes, the orc convoy emerged from the horizon. They crossed the boglands as suspected. Most of the footmen carried their spears, and their armour was loaded on wagons. They weren't strong enough to wear it all the time.

Most importantly, there were four ogres, and they each dragged a trebuchet. The devices were formed from cobbled-together wood and rusty metal sheets, but it was more than what we had. And if they were functional, the 294th could make good use of them. If we could get them back to the camp. That was the problem, then. We'd have to kill the ogres, but move the artillery? Perhaps we could leave it in place, and the rest of the 294th could figure out a way to move it back with them. But I had to stay focused.

We could worry about stealing artillery from the orcs later. So I didn't cause too much confusion among our ranks, I angled outward before we arrived, moving slightly north again. My commands and directions had been formed around an approach from the north, so it was better to keep those intact. The orcs had already heard us. Approaching from behind helped, but it was impossible to keep a thundering cluster of mounted men hidden forever.

They'd started forming ranks directly astern while the others struggled to don their armour. When we were closer, I signalled to break off, then swerved farther north.

"Stick to the original plan!" I shouted.

"Brawl has the horn. Listen for his signals! On a single blast, Brick must let two orcs go! A double blast means things have gone poorly, and we're retreating!" Then I arced back toward the orcs, like a sewing needle plunging into fabric. The middle of their ranks hadn't hardened yet, and their spearmen were still rushing to the side to intercept us.

My squad and Romance's blasted through the mid-section of the column, cutting through the weak midsection of the formation—through the orcs who were still trying to don their armour. Maybe it wasn't chivalrous, but these creatures didn't fight with honour, and we didn't have those luxuries ourselves, not when we were this outnumbered. Burr's hoofs trampled an orc, and I impaled another with my spear. Some scattered, and we crashed through others, either crushing them or flinging them aside.

I triggered my resonance Skill, enhancing my spear's sharpness, and impaling three at a time before pulling my spear away. Once we passed the column, we turned around, about to make another pass. The orcs were scattering. With the convoy split in two, they couldn't work together to form up proper ranks. Brick and Lute's squads circled, stopping them from escaping while picking off the vulnerable groups. I turned to Romance and commanded, "Keep making passes through the center.

Take out as many as you can as quickly as you can, and try to drive both halves farther apart. My squad is going after the ogres." The four ogres let go of their equipment and were reaching for weapons. Two in the front half of the column, two in the back half. We couldn't let them group up—on their own, it was possible for us to take them down, but if they worked together, we might have to pull back without completing the objective. In my mind, I numbered them, one through four.

Ogre One was at the front of the column, Two was second, and so on. As Romance and his squad charged back the other direction, I pointed to the ogre at the rear of the first half of the convoy, Ogre Two, a two-storey-tall beast with sickly pale skin and giant tusks. It was reaching for a weapon stored on a different cart.

"Anchor, can you drop them with an arrow?" I asked.

"If you can get me a clear shot on their eye," he replied.

"I should be able to use my resonance Skill." This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Got it." I narrowed my eyes.

"I'll use my Art to keep the other ogres in place and isolated. We'll work one at a time. Brawl, you hit the ogre's knees and cripple it. Anchor, once you've got a clear shot, take it down. As soon as we drop it, move to the next." My squad nodded in agreement. I was up first—I used my gravity Art. Although I couldn't target all three of the other beasts at once, I had to look for the ogres most likely to group up and stop them from doing so.

Ogre One, the beast at the front of the convoy, moved back to help, or to attack Romance's squad as they made another pass to separate the convoy again. Before One could arrive and help Two, I targeted him with my Art, and I triggered it at an angle. The enhanced gravity well weighed the ogre down, and its feet sank into the ground. No matter how cold and hard the ground was, when the beast seemed to weigh eight times as much, the ground cracked and broke beneath it. But I also pulled it back at an angle.

Like a harsh wind was blowing from directly ahead, the ogre struggled to pull itself out of the well. It couldn't just churn forward to escape. Maybe if it moved to the side, it'd have better luck, but in the heat of battle, focusing was difficult, and ogres weren't the brightest at the best of times.

"Go!" I shouted.

"Now!" While maintaining the enhanced field around One, I charged forward toward Two. Brawl moved to the left of me, holding his flail out to the side, then bashed Two in the knee with a resonance Skill. The beast keeled over, falling to its hands and knees. It tried to raise its hands to protect its head, but I jabbed it in the elbow—also using a resonance Skill.

"Anchor!" I yelled.

"Sooner than later!"

"Almost…" he gritted as he drew back his bow. The ogre tossed its head back, exposing its eyes, and Anchor fired his shot. An enhanced arrow blasted into the beast's head, cracking through the skull and killing it in an instant. It fell face-first into the mud. Next up was Ogre One, still trapped in a gravity well. My Art ran out just in time. We charged through a cluster of weaker orcs, and at the same time, I monitored the situation with the rest of the convoy, using my Focus to split my attention.

Some orcs fled, but the other squads kept them busy. One of Brick's riders had lost his horse and was fighting on foot, and another had crashed through an orc wagon, overturning it. But they were handling themselves fine. Lute's squad was isolating the archers at the rear of the convoy, and they hadn't taken any losses yet. Best of all, Romance's squad was preparing for another pass, about to trim down the second half of the convoy. But there were still three ogres left.

As we charged toward Ogre One, in the first half, I kept an eye on the rear half of the convoy, where the Ogre Three and Four were trying to group up and attack Romance's squad. And their group didn't have enough Focus to notice until it was too late. I triggered a gravity Art on Three and angled it upward, at an angle. It caught the ogre and flung the beast to the side, sending it tumbling across the frozen mud. Ice shattered beneath it as it tumbled. That should buy us time.

In the time it took me to deal with the third ogre, we'd reached our immediate target. Ogre One swung a massive cudgel at us, but we veered off. Instead, the weapon smashed a wagon filled with dry orc bread, scattering it across the battlefield. Brawl hit its upper thigh, breaking its leg and bringing it low, and I pulled it all the way down into the dirt with another normal up-and-down gravity well.

"Anchor, use the well to arc an arrow into the back of its neck," I said.

"It should make your arrow even stronger." We hadn't practiced this maneuver much before, but Anchor was a good shot, and if I could take his already strong arrows and make them better, then it'd let us pierce even more durable targets. Anchor fired a shot. The arrow flew into the gravity well, then slammed down at a steep angle, rapidly increasing its speed until it struck the back of the ogre's neck. It pierced flesh and bone, and the beast fell still.

Anchor gave me a nod, and I returned the gesture, then said, "We've got two more." Ogre Three, the one I'd flung, was rushing back to the column, trying to rejoin with his squad. We wouldn't have time, and I couldn't spend all my Presence keeping the ogres apart. I was already down five points, and I only had twelve total. If we were going to do anything about the rest of the orc army—wherever this convoy was heading—then I'd need to save what I could.

We didn't know how far away they were, and if they were close, there wouldn't be time to reset my points. I could only use one or two more points right here. Already, I figured the best use for one.

"Brawl, I'm going to pull that one toward us," I said, motioning toward Ogre Three.

"It's going to come fast, but I need you to hit it in the waist with your flail."

"Understood, brother." I targeted Three, then pulled back on the beast with my Art, dragging it across the mud toward us. I directed the gravity almost horizontally, as if there was a massive well right beside the beast. It was enough to accelerate it toward us. Brawl smashed it in the mid-section with his flail, cracking bone and piercing flesh. It hit the ground, growling and snarling, but its legs didn't work anymore, and it'd die soon.

"Leave it!" I yelled. There was one last ogre, Ogre Four. It had broken off and was charging toward Lute's riders.

"Anchor, get its attention." Anchor fired an arrow into its back, and that was enough to grab its attention, sure enough. But it wasn't enough to kill it—not at that distance, and not with how thick the beast's skin was. The ogre turned toward us, raising its club, then sprinted in our direction.

"One more," I said.

"Here it—" I stopped myself. We'd also gotten the attention of the orc archers at the convoy's rear, and arrows whistled toward us.

"Turn, now!"