Day 23
I was returning from a morning hunt when I spotted a centaur warband heading Northeast from a distance. I hurried back to report it once I'd realized they hadn't spotted or cared about me. We had several small teams out in the field and they didn't need that sort of surprise.
Gurnag sent a messenger bird to the Crossroads while the men went on alert. We slowly relaxed when no attacks came but kept an eye out for any danger as our patrols came back. About four hours after the alarm was raised a pair of hunters stumbled back babbling about being chased by quilboar the entire way.
We didn't have nearly enough men to defend the wall so we spread in pairs to cover it. My partner was a massive tauren male with a giant totem for a weapon. It was pretty freaking awesome up close. Nyx almost gave me a heart attack when I noticed her laying against the wall so I dragged her off to the tower where Gurnag was overlooking the land and told her to obey him. Neither of us were comfortable with his grin.
It didn't take long for the Razormane quilboar to make their appearance. One moment there was nothing on the horizon and the next a dust cloud was coming around the foothills and heading right for us. There were hundreds of quilboar charging us and at a quick glance only a couple dozen of us to fight them. We all looked pretty grim so I did what every Horde player has always wanted to do. "Lok'tar Ogar! For the Horde!" I had to repeat myself before the others took up the call but it seemed to work.
My bow claimed at least three kills firing into the charging mob, whether to the wounds or to trampling didn't matter to me. I had to swap to my shield and axe way too soon when arrows started flying back at us, though thankfully my tauren shield-brother blocked a few for me while I fumbled around. I didn't even get the chance to thank him before we were in the middle of a nasty melee.
The first wave of quilboar to reach the wall likely regretted their choice. We didn't have many stakes but what we did have helped to cover for our lack of manpower and dozens were impaled by the weight of their brothers behind them. I didn't get more than a glimpse of that during the battle because for the first few minutes I was in an overwhelmed frenzy.
One of the coolest things I've ever seen has to be when the two earth elementals pulled themselves out of the ground and proceeded to sweep along the loose line to break up the worst of the fighting. The lightning and healing from the shaman definitely helped but damn those elementals were impressive. Quilboar were sent flying or being smashed into the ground by overwhelming force.
My shield took a beating early on and didn't last long when a particularly strong quilboar decided to try to cleave it. He definitely mangled my shield but I took my revenge by relieving him of his axe, and his head. My new two-handed axe certainly helped clear the area around me faster and my shield-brother swept aside any who tried to oppose him. I'm not entirely sure what you call someone who isn't using a shield but holds that position, battle-brother or comrade maybe?
Despite our ferocious defense we were being pushed back by sheer numbers and within fifteen minutes we stood halfway from the mine. I'd just watched one of the elementals fall to a swarm of quilboar when a piercing howl came from the watch tower and a dozen strong peons marched from the mine with heavy shields. Behind the shieldbearers came a mass of peons holding spears who proceeded to launch them into the ranks of quilboar. Large numbers fell to the surprise support before another shock came by way of war horns.
Sergra Darkthorn brought a force of a dozen wolfriders and a hundred Horde infantry and stormed the shocked quilboar from behind. The rest of things were a blur of fighting but when the dust settled, not a single enemy stood before us. The cheers were echoing across the landscape even as the healers moved in to check for survivors.
Word is despite the hatred between quilboar and centaur, the Kolkar and Razormane are more than willing to work against the Horde together. We've been reinforced by some of the warriors Sergra brought and told to expect lots of combat in the future. For now I'm going to finish writing and then see if Bullhorn is resting properly, he wore himself out during the fighting.
-Borgin (P.S. Not entirely happy with my pup being used as a signal, Gurnag!)