Valaya´s Gate
It took another listening spot to triangulate on the sounds, a place in the shaft a few meters below them. Kargan distributed his team with hand gestures only and found a place which gave cover for him and Bessie. He had barely settled when a spot of the shafts wall started to glow and the stink of burning rock assaulted his nose. By that time both humans and Dawi switched off all lights and waited in the darkness.
Even for Kargan the walls of the shaft seemed to close around him, the air suddenly was warmer and gave less oxygen and the waiting became harder. The glowing spot grew in size and rocks dropped to the shaft`s floor. A greenish light emerged from the gaps that appeared and the hairs of the ambushers started to rise.
Lit by the warpstone powered tunnel drill the skeleton had a demonic appearance past what it would normally have possessed and made it look even more threatening than it already was. It stepped into the tunnel and was quickly followed by more of its kind. These carried ancient swords and small shields and they started to fan out into something that would become a defensive perimeter when Kargan pulled the trigger on Bessie. The shotguns pellet had hardly moved from each other when the ripped the chest of an undead apart, dropping the bones on the ground. By the time the remains had stopped moving Kargan had hit another one and all other Skeletons who had emerged from the newly made side tunnel had been killed.
Kargan signalled the Palandins to step forward to the tunnel. One of them threw a grenade into the opening, the other waited for the explosion before simply stepping into the tunnel entrance and letting loose with a long burst from his rifle. The second armored soldier did the same and Kargan had the first impression that a lot of undead were waiting for their turn.
He did not want to be tied down, so he stepped forward to make the Paladins move up into the new tunnel so he could begin demolition. He had nearly reached the tunnel entrance when he saw something that made him pause.
All undead his team had killed started to burn enthusiastically. He had certainly not use incendiary ammo and to the best of his knowledge nobody else had. When he had a look at the tunnel made by the undead he saw the first flames emerging from the massed dead there also. This was nothing his people had done, and he had never heard that the undead died in flames unless one burned them which was a good way to get rid of them for good. He found a spot to place his charge and retreated from the tunnel before things went out of hand. More hand signals removed his team from the tunnel entrance and as he could see them all in the fire`s light he refrained from shouting "Fire in the hole."
The charge brought the side tunnel down, yet Kargan knew fully well that whoever could cut a tunnel like the one he had left full of burning undead would have no problem cutting through the few meters of rubble he had just dropped in there.
It was more important that command learned about the undead tunnel drills than to try to protect a ventilation shaft with too few Dawi.
"We go back down folks, at least until we can raise command via wireless. Sir Wilhelm, you take point, the rest of us lads follows, Fagrim, you have the rear. Get going lads."
He was still wondering what this thing about the undead bursting into flames was when he was the smoke from the fire in the shaft getting blown downwards towards Valaya`s gate. That was when he shuddered.
The small team made a couple of hundred meters before they saw another breakthrough into the shaft. They were far enough to be able to put some grenades between the skeletons which broke up into splinters easily enough. The team had to wait till the flames had died down enough to start their descent. By that time Fagrim had issued a warning that more undead approached from above and a deep rumble announced that the shaft had been collapsed above them.
From that point onwards Kargan and his team made the very best speed as nobody wanted to be caught by another collapse between them and Valaya`s gate.
Kargan`s heart hammered like it wanted to escape his chest, his lungs burned and his legs tried to rival these. Vision was restricted to the bits of shaft exposed by the bobbing lamps that all used, revealing things either in harsh bright light or disguising them in impenetrable shadows. Apart from keeping up proper spacing his team didn`t use anything like proper tactics in their haste to avoid being trapped in the shaft.
Of course there was a price to be paid for this. It was paid by Wilhelm von der Vogelweide, the Paladin who walked or better ran point for the team when he collided with several undead that seemed to step out of nothing. Instead of laying down a barrage from his assault rifle that would have taken the undead down with ease he bodily barreled into a bunch of them. Two of the skeletons splintered into kindling upon impact, one followed when Wilhelm punched the bayonet on his rifle right through the mail shirt of the third. The remains of the undead tangled his feet though and he dropped into a heap of bones which had barely stopped moving while the rest of the undead stabbed at his prone form.
Ironbeard managed to shoot two of them from the Paladins back before he and the others applied rifle butts and bayonets to a fight that should not have happened. It was over soon but not soon enough for the armored soldiers. The tip of a spear had slipped between two plates and a shank had been pierced, the beating on the Paladin`s helmet had removed the antenna and left dizziness and headache.
Kargan watched the surrounding darkness as intently as all other while Fagrim did his best to apply first aid to the Paladin who was remarkably calm given the injuries.
When he checked on progress again he found the armored soldier upright again, experimentally moving a very stiff leg.
"I heard you Paladins are a tough bunch but can you make the march?"
"Not much choice isn`t there? Don`t worry though, your man makes good bandages and the suit dispenses local anesthetics when it detects lots of blood somewhere. Presently it just burns like hell and the suit will take the weight."
"Then lets do it. Get yourself in front of me, Sir Paul you take point and off we go."
They had to "kill" another bunch of undead before they were back at the main cavern. They stepped into an anthill.
The Paladins were shifting their positions considerably from where he had last seen them. Valten could be seen in heated discussion with the priestess of Valaya and two Long beards while his XO tried his best to keep things running.
Kargan managed to gain Joakim`s attention in between two wireless calls.
"Joakim, the bloody skeletons have warpstone tunnel drills like the ones the Tagoraki used in Skavenblight, they can tunnel in anywhere and managed to shut our shaft down for good. And that is not all of it."
"We learned about the drills after you left and you were out of range, sorry. We already change our positions accordingly and I have a job for you. But what is "not all of it?"
"The undead burn when they die. Whoever sent them must have made them that way."
"Sounds stupid, why would they...oh Scheiße."
"Yes, isn`t it? Shut down the ventilation, burn a lot of stuff nicely and the last thing standing is the one which does not need to breathe. Please tell me you got that problem licked Joakim or I look very stupid in front of Berlit, not to mention the fact that a Goddess would die and all that."
"Don`t worry, we got rebreathers for the suits, we are fine for a while. Which brings me to the job I have for you: We need the replacement cartridges for them, we`ll probably need more ammo if we have to carry all the weight and I already know who is going to get that from the RP."
"We can make runs with empty sidecars. Anything you want me and the gunners to do?"
"Keep the tunnel to the surface clear and keep the resupply flowing. That is the most important thing now. Before you go, can you try to give the news to Berlit and her Hammerers? If the bloody skeletons really burn so well they have to evac."
"Tell them to pull back and leave the defense of Valaya to humans? Joakim, I am a Thunderer, not a miracle worker."
"Try to get them to the surface tunnel entrance then, things should better there."
"I can try, no promises Joakim."
"None asked for."
The tunnel that connected Valaya`s gate to the surface had a reasonable slope, a stone floor that was as smooth as a Dawi could ask for and gentle curves. Currently Fagrim`s back got fearful jolts, the curves seemed close to right corners and the slope suicidal. All of that was was as he had turned the grip on the right handlebar as far backwards as it would go and roared down at all the speed an overloaded Russian bike would mount up.
In front of him on the tank, in his back and in the sidecar death waited to claim him. Rebreather cartridges full of poisonous chemicals, boxes full of ammo and grenades waiting for the accident that would convert him and his bike into a roaring fireball.
Applying the brakes mostly to make his bike round the left corner before him better the Dawi Thunderer steered his bike into a dark hole and tried to coax more speed out of the engine. He was followed by more bikes and if he made nay mistake it was quite likely that the following pile-up would claim more lives.
It would all be senseless madness were it not for the fact that the stuff in his bikes were not so direly needed below and so the Angels were on a ride.
Be it sheer luck, Fagrim`s skills or the Goddess favor yet no accident claimed lives before the bikes roared into the main cavern that held Valaya`s gate.
They emerged into a pretty convincing facsimile of hell.
Orbit around Verda, same time
The red planet turned "below" Nathan, the unblinking stars surrounded him in nearly all other directions and none of them managed to hold his attention. Nathan was holding station in front of another satellite of the old ones, which was nothing new.
What was news to him was that the artifact was not obviously damaged in any way and still did not radiate in any way he or the best sensors aboard "Nordstern" could detect.
While solar power was sufficient to power nanites in an orbit around the Warhammer World so they could maintain the satellites at a low level at least the small and cold light in the sky behind the German astronaut could not do so.
The AI had called this orbiter "Lowell" and when it was still active it had ceaselessly scanned the Mars-like world of Verda for scientific gain. At the same time it had coordinated the works of several other satellites and had sent the condensed data down to the Slann scientists interested in such things.
It had continued to save the data when it became obvious that the satellite`s builders were gone and stopped doing so when its power supply waned.
127 years after the Chaos Gates had opened "Lowel" had shut itself down and for all the millenia it was dead. There was practically nothing useful or working in this artifact any more as all moving parts had fused a great length of time ago.
The only items of interest were the four golfball-sized balls of silicium which did not have to move in any way to contain a decently powerful AI.
Nathan and Red Crew needed three EVAs and a great lot of work till they had retrieved the balls and barely managed to gather them without damaging the delicate circuits within.
Whether this would damn the Germans and all of the Warhammer World only time would tell.
Berlit, Priestress of Valaya had never heard of hell as imagined by Christians, even when some Dawi had similar notions about the warp. The situation around her would have been a pretty good illustration of what it would be like. The temperature in the cave had risen markedly, the air was filled by the smells of burning rock and bones and the cave was lit by muzzle flashes, explosions and the flickering flames of undead pyres. Of the latter there were many as the undead emerged in uncountable numbers from the tunnels that had always connected to the Gate as well as through many openings that the skeletons had somehow made by themselves. The far side of the cave, the sides and even some parts of the roof were holed in many places while there were no new threats close to the gate.
Berlit knew better than any other living being how well shielded Valaya`s gate was and from what she saw these runes were powerful enough to ward off the Undead`s tunneling attempts for now. The assault on the ground was a different matter entirely. The undead inside the cave seemed to have no end, a virtual flood of bones, rusty weapons and death. All what was between them and the Gate was such a small number of humans, the humans she had dismissed so easily only a few hours before. She could not do that anymore as she was positively frightened of them. The masses of undead released swarms of arrows and spears, enough to decimate her Hammerers in moments. With her Dawi out of range all these missiles fell on the strange humans who were the only defense between the enemy and her Goddess.
And yet, for every arrow and spear there were probably five bullets of some kind in the air and the armor worn by the „Paladins" remarkably good at stopping the missiles that reached them. The greatest harm the Undead did presently was the fires that signaled their demise. Only a small area around the tunnel that led to the far-of surface still held breathable air, the rest was as bereft of oxygen as she imagined the bottom of the deepest ocean to be. These Paladins kept fighting regardless and caught the skeletons in a deadly crossfire between the three fighting positions they occupied. There was a trickle of injured that came from these position to her and the German medics. Compared to the battles Berlit could refer to this was nothing, but with so few warriors able to fight each one was a disaster.
She made her way towards the next soldier in line who was clutching his right lower arm. The strange armor they wore had obviously fended off the worst of it, but even from here Berlit could see that it had a bent in the middle that should not be there. The Paladin was remarkably calm for the pain he was probably in and waited his turn for his doctors to work on him. She watched herself step forward without having made any decision about that and grip the forearm of the soldier on both sides of the fracture. By that time only white could be seen in her eyes.
Arkhan the Black reached out to the forces that bound the dead and the living again. There was so much of it here with all the Undead that had made it so far that it should be easy. It was not. When he put his sight to the empyrean realm he stood at the bottom of an immense cliff that stretched everywhere he could see when he looked towards the gate. He had tried to send his most powerful spells towards the defenders, yet they had been absorbed so easily that the only sign that he had casted at all was his exhaustion. If he casted at his own troops it was as if he were a mere dabbler in the art, if he tried something against the humans and Dawi it simply did not happen. If this was an indication of the power available then Arkhan could understand very well why Nagash wanted it, but wanting it and taking it were two very different things.
The enemies were few but they commanded weapons like he had never seen and the lack of air did not seem to slow them down any. He had sent his Skeletons in by the Legion, he had dispatched Knights and Constructs and they all met the fiery death, mostly before they could close with the enemy.
He now had to make a difficult decision as he had a ritual to perform, his most sacred duty in this undertaking, yet he was told to do this only after the defenders were subdued. He doubted that he could achieve that anytime soon, but breaking off would not put him in his masters good graces either.
The chemicals inside the cylinder on Paladin`s back would have killed him painfully would he have ingested them. Instead they cleaned the carbon dioxide from the air he exhaled and a surprisingly small bottle of oxygen replenished the air. It was a good thing as the atmosphere outside of his helmet would have killed him in two minutes flat. Joakim Vos was in one of the most intense fights of his life and his rifle was hanging in its rig before his chest, being as clean as it was yesterday. He had far too much work on his hands to do something unimportant as shooting the enemy and if he had to do that it would be a sign of major disaster. Not that this was really unlikely but currently things were not in that state.
Valten had approved his proposal for rearranging the troops and they had barely managed in time to emplace themselves from two lines facing the tunnels leading to the Gate into three firing positions that allowed near-360-degree fields of fire. When the undead started to appear through countless new openings at what would have been the Paladin`s flanks they encountered dug-in armored infantry that used heavy weapons at a few hundred meters at the most.
It was a sight to see even for a soldier who had fought before the Horned Rat itself. Multiple lines of tracer connected the machine guns and assault rifles with the skeletons, cutting them into splinters as quickly as they emerged. The few tunnel openings that were big enough to allow undead constructs to emerge were well covered by his two autocannons. They were a godsend as they were far easier to aim than the RAG projectiles he had used before and the 30 mm ammo ripped stone and bones to shards with equal ease.
Flickering bonfires produced a lot of smoke and soot when burning in air which had about 5% oxygen and lit the cavern with unearthly colors and threatening shapes. He switched to infrared sight pretty often to look through the smoke and tried to make something out of the moving blobs that were displayed by the monitor inside his helmet.
One stood out, not because of its size but as it was unusual. It seemed like a box borne by several skeletons and accompanied by more of them. He magic indicator inside his suit gave a nearly off-scale reading in that direction and that provided the hint for his overworked brain to parse the info.
"Witzig, Casket of Souls at 3`o clock, get it immediately, repeat Casket of Souls.."
By that time he saw a light that started to penetrate even the thick smoke from that direction, saw the first blobs of light emerge and then an explosion that leveled anything in that direction. The explosion was far stronger than the small amount of explosives inside the shells would allow for and the effects were also not dependent on pyrotechnics. Glowing blobs not unlike rising meteors went in all directions, some vanishing in the far walls or ceiling, some merging with the undead an exploding, more coming the way of the Paladins. Even the well-warded armored suits would not shield the humans from the tormented mental shrieks coming from the souls that had been trapped inside the casket, giving the Paladins a view to the depths of madness.
The blobs that approached the humans grew in apparent size and threat, crossed a line that had been carved into the ground eons ago and simply vanished like a light show.
Friend and foe stopped whatever they were doing for a long second, unsure what had happened and then redoubled their efforts.
Joakim Vos looked at the magical indicator again, the strong concentration that had been the Casket was gone, yet there was a new signal nearly equally strong that had been masked so far. Moving aside a few meters he let his suit calculate a distance from the changed bearing. Whatever gave that signal was somewhere in the main tunnel that led to the cave, well out of sight. Preparing something that could not be in the best interests of the Paladins.
Arkhan the Black`s fingers were covered in shriveled skin that barely covered bones and sinews. It should not have moved at all in any sane universe and did not look like they would possess and strength at all. Still they managed to securely hold a dagger that was old when Khemri was young with and guided them through flesh and bone with ease. He barely saw the blood that welled from the cuts, did not feel the pulsing of the heart he tore from an elven chest or heard the last whispers of the dying. He was nearly overwhelmed by the power and radiance of the soul freed from its body that and needed ever shred of concentration he could muster to capture that. He needed every bit of this soul and all the others he had already claimed to open a connection and provide the power his master would need.
He had decided to go through with the ritual anyway, this battle would not be won without Nagash`s help.
No matter what way he attacked the enemy his troops were beaten before they could not get to the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned humans who slaughtered them with seeming ease. Without the Necromant`s powers this quest would fail and if this battle was even beyond Nagash`s powers to win the blame would not fall on his bony shoulders.
His Master was currently in his own chamber in the Black Pyramid he had occupied without the Tomb Kings ever being the wiser. If he could master this ritual Nagash would relinquish the bones he currently animated to gain control of those who lay on a bier before Arkhan.
This sacrifice had worked well, he could feel it easily. The next one should be no harder, provided that his fingers would not drop the dagger`s handle that was slickened by blood.
Kargan Ironbeard pulled the buttstock closer to his shoulder before pulling the trigger. The machine gun`s roar was nearly lost in the din of the battle and he had to watch the fall of his bullets closely among the smoke. It did hit a group of skeletons a couple of hundred meters from his position. Unlike any other warriors he knew of the undead he missed did not drop into cover, did not accelerate their pace but simply kept marching towards those Paladins who carried the ammo his Thunderer`s had brought.
It took a second and third burst of fire before they were gone and Kargan was changing the barrel again when something hit his shoulder. Turning he found his loader pointing at another group of undead making their way towards the small pocket of breathable air occupied by the Dawi. Some days it really did not pay to get up.
Joakim Vos pulled the second trigger of his rifle and watched the basketball-sized projectile fly straight at something that should be a beautifully detailed statue guarding some temple which moved. The warhead connected with the constructs shoulder, the explosion ripped the limb off and dropped the Ushtabi on the ground. It was too late for the Paladin which had been hit by the spear-sized arrow that the construct had used to pierce a Paladin`s chest. The arrows shot by the undead constructs hit about as hard as a catapults projectile and even the armor worn by the Reiksbund`s soldiers was not proof against that.
Now he had to plug another hole in his team and he ran down the very short list of available Paladin`s when his cammo set lit up. The screen gave the name of the Paladin who tried to contact him caused his eyebrows to rise.
"Sir Joakim, this is Sir Hermann. I`d like to report for duty."
"Hermann, sorry but with your arm there are only very few things…"
"Sir Joakim, I have to report I am well again."
"What makes you think you are well?"
"Berlit, the Priestess of Valaya made me. Arm is as good as new, you can put me back in my team. And by the look of things I am not the only one."
Joakim took the second to look back towards the Gate where a trickle of soldiers made their way back towards the Paladin`s positions.
He knew far too well where the company was thin on the ground and was about to distribute the unexpected bounty when his comm stopped his train of thought again.
"Sir Joakim, this is Valten. Do you see that spike in the magic indicator?"
"Yes Sir, I was about to contact you about it."
"Meister Jagd and Dame Ulrika both agree that there is a major ritual in the works down there and we need to stop it, right about now."
"I`ll get a team together Sir Valten."
"We`ll pull anybody out where they are now and we are overrun, does not work that way. I´ll take the command group, the Paladin`s who just return to duty and that's it. We meet at my position."
"Sir, if you take command group with you that means that you and me are potentially dead, this is not wise. Stay where you are."
"No can do Sir Joakim and sorry about that. We have good people here, they can mind the store for a few moments. Move it Joakim, that is an order."
Scheiße Scheiße Scheiße. The Paladin`s XO briefly wondered whether he had spent his last life as Atilla`s designated puppy-killer to earn such Karma while he punched in the next connection on his vambrace.
"Witzig, the command group will assault the tunnel opening at 1 o`clock of your position. When I give the signal I want a clear path for that, give it all you got. Sir von Pfeil, you have to take the slack when Witzig executes that fire mission. Kargan, I need more ammo, right now."
He listened to the acknowledgments while he sprinted to the point where a small group of Paladins assembled for what might very well be their final mission.
All around them death and destruction was meted out in incredible amounts and the only reason why the humans had not been killed were that they were in cover and kept the enemy at arm's length, two advantages that Valten was about to give up to prevent a worse disaster.
The motley group that assembled behind the human position closest to the tunnel was a small one. The Paladin`s command group held Valten several specialists, the mages and Joakim. They were precisely the last people that the XO would have used for an assault and they would be the very ones to walk into the fire.
Valten`s comm call lit up the helmets of all members.
"Paladins, beyond that tunnel mouth somebody tries to complete a powerful ritual. We do not know to what end this abomination will be used, but it needs to stop and stop now. We go through the tunnel in front of us, make sure that anything in our path stays properly dead this time and end whatever is there. Me, Dame Ulrika and Sir Ludwig have the front, the rest goes behind us. If things go wrong this is the rally point. We go on my mark, Joakim make sure we have covering fire."
Second later the fire from the position in front of them changed. Instead of trying to take down all undead as they emerged it concentrated on a small angle that was so saturated by fire that none of the Paladins could imagine anything could live there.
There were no articulate warcries from the group and no slogans, yet a high-pitched predators cry escaped Ulrika`s throat and lent that extra bit of power to their charge. They ran forward into what seemed to be a solid wall of fires, towards a tunnel mouth that showed only darkness and promised dangers worse than death.
They advanced parallel to the streams of tracer, dropping the few undead that were between them and the cavers walls will they reached one of the great pillars that supported the caverns arched ceiling. From the shadows and smoke heavily armored skeletons stepped into the Paladin`s path, raising their great weapons as they had done millennia before. Joakim barely managed to drop one of them with a burst before Ulrika stepped between him and the undead. The vambrace of her suit had been modified to hold several claw-like extensions that she swept through armor and bones with equal ease. Combining the strength and speed of a vampire with the artificial muscles provided by her armored suit made her incredibly dangerous in hand-to-hand combat. Besides her Valten swung his hammer in an arc that was nearly too fast to see and that dropped several undead into a heap of tiny burning splinters while the only Dawi in the group kept his axe busy. Joakim stepped forward till the barrel of his rifle cleared the trio and pulled the trigger for his grenade launcher. Slow enough to be visible the projectile gracefully sailed into the tunnel mouth before them, filling the opening with flames and explosive death. The flickering flames that followed showed that he had indeed hit something. By the time the flames shed some light most of the 40-round magazine inside Joakim`s rifle had found a new home and the fires around the command group intensified.
The distance between the pillar and the tunnel entrance was less than a hundred meters, yet it was filled by fires. Joakim looked through a way through the inferno when he saw Meister Jagd raise his wand. There was nothing so hear and the wards of his suit would keep him feeling any side effects, yet the sudden roar of wind that pushed the pyres to a side were easy to perceive.
The mage bend at the hip and made an expansive "after you" gesture that made Joakim chuckle even in the midst of battle and the small wedge of Paladins again charged into madness.
The tunnel opening swallowed them without a trace.
Arkhan the Black was deep inside the ritual, He had amassed enormous energy in the Empyrean to use, so much that every second he spent controlling it was a strain he could hardly stand. Losing the concentration, even for a brief moment would court disaster and so the increased sound of battle were distressing to the extreme.
For the shortest of moments he managed to hold on to the energy and give a mental command. Any mage who tried to conjure in the midst of battle without a proper guard would receive the bounty due to such stupidity and Arkhan was no fool.
The small force he had unleashed were no mere undead, no former laborers or lowly footmen.
Khemri had known mighty knights, warriors of great courage and might wielding powerful weapons while protected by heavy armor. Even in death they had not lost their capabilities, yet their hate for anything living had grown to elemental proportion. Arkhan had trusted his existence to them for very long and had never been disappointed. Had he the mental capabilities to spare he would have worried about their capabilities against the new humans and reassured himself that they would have to hold for such a short time and in such close quarters.
As things were he did none of that as there were more throats to slit, souls to use and his master`s wishes to be fulfilled.
And then came the glorious moment when the energies were enough, when the thin borders between this reality and the others tore, when the essence of his master stepped through the portal and the consecrated bones inside the ritual circle began to rise.
The kopesh missed Joakim by mere centimeters as he went down into a low crouch while the empty magazine clattered uselessly on the floor. He rolled himself twice, hoping that his life-saving backpack would not be hit. When he was on his back again he drew his legs back to avoid a strike that would have taken them cleanly off and triggered the jump-function of his suit.
Actuators powered both by electricity and magic pushed his legs down with the force needed to propel man and suit 20 meters. It was a good thing that his feet were encased in gel pads as the impact would have broken them otherwise. That way they bent the bronze leg armor nearly to 90 degrees and broke all legs behind that into several parts. By the time the undead started to move in a coordinated fashion he had reloaded and a burst went through the girdle right into the massive chest.
He was back on his feet again when his opponent burst into flames and managed to plug the gap that was left by Ulrika who had stepped back a bit. He was wondering why she gestured him to leave a gap when her armored hand released a wave of something. A heatwave seemed to rip through the enemy in front of him, staggering the Knights for a second before they resumed their attack. At first there seemed to be no difference, but when he had to block another sword strike with his bayonet it was easy to deflect. At the same time undead moved slower, as if the weight of their armor suddenly weighted them down.
Still it was hard fought. As much as he tried to keep Valten from danger his commander insisted to push himself to the fore where his Warhammer could main the enemy. He was a sight to behold, moving far faster than somebody encased in armor should be, seemingly only focusing on the next strike and still rarely there when the enemy tried to land a blow. Ulrika tried her level best to match him after her casting but Sorri`s axe hung at the belt while the Dawi was banging away with a pistol. His right arm was stabilized by the armor which had reacted to the injury as programmed, yet his absence was felt, even if not so much as that of Sir Hans whose helmet had failed to stop a halberd that went through his faceplate.
