Chapter 34: The Reality of War
Perspective: Steve/Warnado
The fighting began more quickly than Steve would have liked, anything to delay this battle would have suited him well. Moments before both armies had been marching towards each other in formation, then the leaders of both vanguards shouted their commands, and the charge began. Of course, Steve was one of those leaders, standing in the midst of his troops. He had a bad feeling about this entire operation from the second Kay had included him in his inner circle but going against orders would only worsen things, there was only one option there for him and his soldiers and that option was fighting.
There was a deafening silence before the fronts collided, then the noise of battle began. Weapons colliding with armor, soldiers screaming both in pain and anger. The line was holding so far, not just that, they even seemed to have the advantage.
The Jackals were fierce fighters, using every dirty trick in the book to make sure they stayed on top. The forces of the Tower seemed less eager, they were mercenaries fighting for the so-far winning side, they were not used to being evenly matched.
Steve was still not far enough forward to be part of the fighting, he made use of this by bellowing orders, telling groups of soldiers to advance or retreat or ordering a sudden flanking attack by the skirmishers.
Arrows were starting to fly from both sides, most glancing off armor or missing entirely but some found their mark, soldiers fell, and lines thinned, if only marginally.
They were slowly gaining ground, pushing back the Tower's front-line forces who couldn't withstand their assault. That's when Steve heard the first explosions in the distance, since they came from behind him that meant that their own artillery had opened fire. Moments later a brightly burning block of TNT came soaring over Steve's head and impacted some distance ahead of him, squarely in the middle of the enemy formation. A loud bang tore through the air, drowning out the sounds of battle for a few seconds. The shot had devastated the enemy formation, leaving countless mercenaries either dead or badly dismembered and bleeding out.
The Jackals used this opening to push back harder, having lost remarkably few so far. This would probably change when the enemy answered with their own artillery. Steve advanced with his soldiers, counting the seconds but no return strike came.
Steve reached out to Kir mentally, who was once again filling the role of communicator. "Do the scryers spot any enemy artillery?"
After a few seconds Kir chirped in reply: "No, but assembling mages."
Steve did not reply, he trusted that Shadow would react accordingly with her own squad of mages, he had more pressing matters to attend to. The front was rapidly widening as their army pushed further in, within moments Steve would not be afforded the luxury of commanding, he'd have to join in the fighting as well. Meanwhile more artillery fire came from their backline.
His first contact was with an enemy foot soldier clad in diamond armor, Steve defeated him only moments after they came in contact. In the time he had spent in Nexus Steve had become acutely aware how much stronger he was than the average person from another world, now he'd put this power differential to good use.
Soldier after soldier fell before his sword, they were now pushed up quite far but there was still no end in sight to the armies of the Tower. If they had one thing it was numbers and resources.
A flash of purple tore Steve out of his focus, several endermen had teleported in, all wearing the characteristic obsidian armor of the Tower's elite enderman troops, the Ender in their midst. He had expected her to maybe lose a few words of mockery or disdain but no, she immediately engaged Steve's soldiers.
The five or six closest Jackals fell immediately, having been too close to react to the lightning-fast assault of the endermen. If they break now, it's over. Steve thought. But they held fast, at least for the moment. The poleaxe soldiers from the back lines came charging forward, distributing throughout the forces to react to any teleportation attacks. It helped but not nearly as much as Kay promised it would, it didn't dissuade the endermen from teleporting, only made them choose more careful angles of attack.
Steve decided to engage the Ender directly before her squad could gain a proper foothold. Her back was turned but she whirled around as soon as Steve came close, blocking his swing with her spear. Steve could only hope that the strange honor-bound culture he had observed during Silver's interrogation would prevent the other endermen from ganging up on him.
The Ender struck fast and hard, not pausing between attacks, instead using teleportation to carry over momentum from missed attacks. The blows that hit Steve were mostly absorbed by his armor but the sheer impact force hurt his muscles even through the protective shell of diamonds.
Steve's own attacks were not to be underestimated either, he didn't land hits often but when he did, he landed them just as the Ender came out of a teleportation. Each hit he landed made her armor resonate with a muffled tone, he hoped that she was experiencing the impacts like he was.
Around them the battle still raged on, the enderman squad tearing through his soldiers. Luckily, they suffered losses from well-placed poleaxes, or the vanguard would be overwhelmed. There were only thirty or so endermen, they couldn't keep this up forever. Steve did realize that their forward position was quickly working against them, they were getting more surrounded by the second. Diamond ranks drew close and closer to his position as they advanced.
Suddenly Kir's voice appeared in his head again: "Heads up, Sunbeam inbound five meters north from your location in ten seconds."
Steve quickly turned his head towards the location, a group of endermen was densely packed, fighting off poleaxe soldiers. He relayed the warning to his soldiers and quickly returned his focus to defending against the Ender and pressuring her in turn, trying to maneuver away from the designated area.
Shortly after, a blindingly bright column of flames struck the group of endermen before they had a chance to react. A few of their own soldiers were caught in the blaze as well. The beam extinguished moments later, leaving only ashes and molten ground. They were entirely on their own now, it would take Shadow's mages multiple minutes before they had another such strike ready.
The Ender did not take kindly to this sudden loss of soldiers and attacked Steve with redoubled effort. If this continued, they'd be entirely surrounded before the endermen were all dead, however they still had one more ace up their sleeve.
A rumbling detonation erupted some distance into the Tower forces, collapsing a good portion of the battlefield into a smoking crater. This would buy them some additional time. Steve groaned in pain as the Ender's spear impacted on his side. They would certainly need it.
"YEAH!" whooped Warnado. "Suck it!"
The explosives had created a substantive hole in the enemy ranks, effectively splitting them in two. He could already see the black dots of the combat mages rushing in to pick off the stragglers, and even the first shifts of terrain that indicated the presence of fast-builders.
Amanda was to his left, a crossbow in one hand and an axe in the other. She was beaming with uncharacteristic sunniness. Destroying your enemies can bring that out in anyone. Warnado grinned back but was drawn back to the world by Tyron's growl.
"Stay on me, kids," said the hero of Minecraftia. "I'll keep you safe."
Then, with astounding efficiency, he barked orders to the ranks and whipped them into a charge.
It was all Warnado and Amanda could do to keep pace with Tyron as he charged at the fore of the army. Armoured boots clattered at their heels, threatening to trample them at any moment. It was so freaking cool!
This was his first large-scale battle, and while he would have preferred to be commanding his own squad, playing support to the guy who was commanding most of the troops was pretty cool, too.
Steve's vanguard lay ahead of them, just about holding against the Ender. Warnado saw Steve and the Ender in combat, each a master in their own art of war. Sword and spear clashed together so hard, Warnado could swear he heard it even over the roar of charging armies and the occasional explosion of magic or TNT.
They came within twenty metres of Steve's lines while Warnado saw Urist fall from between the legs of a poleaxe-man. Warnado slowed. Said poleaxe-wielding soldier promptly collapsed as an enderman rammed its claws into his neck, and the ender-born warrior immediately turned its attention to the wounded dwarf on the ground. It set about stabbing its obsidian sword down at the dwarf, who only just managed to dodge by rolling in the increasingly lacerated dirt. He had apparently lost his weapon. He needed help.
Warnado called to Tyron, but he had already launched himself into the air on wings of stone and was soaring down at the enderman brigade hammering the jackals. Amanda followed him, firing off crossbow bolts into the leg of one enderman and finishing him off with a precise strike from the axe.
"So much for 'stay with me, kids!'" Warnado grumbled internally.
He rushed the enderman with his energy axe, and in its desire to kill the dwarf it didn't notice him. He caught it at a chink in the armour on its hip and it screeched metallically. It responded with a slash of the sword that Warnado ducked under. The enderman rounded on him, and Warnado twirled his energy axe, transforming it into an imposing morning star. They raised their weapons, ready to strike, when they heard a hiss from above.
The enderman looked to the side and warped away without hesitation. Several shots of white-hot TNT hurtled toward them. Several silver-flame portals opened to meet them, and some of the charges fell through them, rematerializing in the midst of the enemy ranks. Others were caught by bursts of magical flame and lightning and exploded prematurely in the air. One, however, landed right next to Warnado. He looked around. Urist had scrambled back into the fighting to recover his weapon.
The charge exploded and struck hard against the magical shield Warnado raised to defend himself, catapulting him right into the heart of the fray, where the two lines fought hardest against each other.
His robes still smoking, Warnado hadn't a second to recollect his thoughts before he was ducking and rolling just to avoid being trampled. Enemies and allies fell all around him. He glanced up and Voidblade slit the throat of a giant, splattering Warnado's robes with blood. The quarter-demon tried to call out to his ally, but he took no notice, teleporting off to kill a similarly vulnerable enderman on the other side of the field.
As for the giant, he slumped to his knees, choking out his life. Desperate to see above the warring bodies around him and find his way back to Tyron, Warnado climbed onto the dying enemy's shoulders and surveyed the situation.
Some twenty metres away, Tyron was in the thick of the fighting, cutting bloody trenches into his opponents, pressing toward the wall being constructed on the crater's Eastern edge. He saw Jennifer pushing toward the Western side, bow in hand and raining death. Amanda was not visible. Warnado felt his lungs tighten. He had to get over there.
He formed his fingers into the shape of a gun on his non-gauntleted hand and readied to rain fire but realised how hard it was to tell friend from foe. All was diamond and steel and steel and diamond. Insignias were already fading beneath blood and mud and smoke from the explosions. All he had to go on was the positioning of the hill…
An arrow soared past his head, and he panicked. Flames flooded out of him, scorching the land and the beings upon it. Two endermen collapsed and several humans. None were dead. Warnado watched with horror as his side cheered and ran down the screaming victims of his magic, hacking and stabbing at their helpless forms.
"Warnado, come!" howled Kir.
Unable to look upon it any further, Warnado dove into the melee and returned to darting between the combatants' legs, hacking at the tree-like limbs and not daring to check who he harmed and praying it was the enemy.
He heard a sizzling noise and skidded to a halt just before the Sunbeam scorched the ground before him. An empty circular area about 5 meters in diameter stood before him, black and coal and terrifyingly uneven to walk on. He staggered out into the centre, the warmth beneath his feet making the rest of him shiver with an unfelt chill, and then the scent of about twenty or so living beings' charred flesh rose to meet him. He wanted to vomit.
He had no time, however, as he immediately found himself pinned to the ground, sinking into the ash. A grey-scaled enderman had planted an armoured boot on his chest. Warnado swung and it warped backwards.
That was when Warnado saw the hulking form that had stepped into the circle. It was engaged with a green-eyed enderman - one of Voidblade's skirmishers - but it wasn't much of a fight. The hulking figure held the enderman from behind, and an obsidian gauntlet pulled its chin unnaturally upwards. The steel fingers pressed further and further until… Rrrrip! The head tore clean off and went flying into the fighting around them.
Warnado stood, not quite paralysed by fear but not able to do anything meaningful. He limply raised his fists.
The hulking figure turned as the silver-scaled enderman sneered. It wore obsidian armour from head to foot, but the huge gauntlets were a dead giveaway. Glibby the Ape stood before him.
"Hello child," he said. "I told you I would come back. You're next on my list."
He began to laugh maniacally. Warnado's power over his limbs returned to him. He darted off into the tumult of battle, now blind to the atrocities around him.
