A/N: Acherus01 that is definitely a good idea and I'll see about that. This chapter is a different view, hope you all enjoy. It also kinda wrote itself, but I see my path.
Thunder and lightning tore through the sky as Jonathan grumbled on the floor of his tent for the third night. As the rain swiftly followed the opening of the storm, Jonathan took his time to think about how he had ended up here. His Pa had worked with a milita during the Gurubashi war and met Commander Greybraid when the dwarf was rising through the ranks. Somehow Pa had managed to impress the dwarf enough that when asked, Commander Greybraid had arranged for Jonathan to squire under Sir Damon Ashfall, who had himself squired under Commander Greybraid. Jonathan had been a squire for several years, having wanted to be a knight from a young age.
Why his knightly mentor assigned him this task eluded the boy, but he figured it wouldn't be as hard as fighting the centaur. He would be sitting in a base after all. Except the base didn't exist yet. Just a series of lifts and guard stations at the moment, which had exhausted the shaman and mages getting it set up, and had only finished that day. The mages had been teleporting up and down the mountainside with shaman, letting them shape the earth and stone into convenient bases for the engineers to construct lifts and winches at. Oghren had been crowing about that particular feat, more than impressed at the four checkpoints it would take to reach the top of the mountain.
The light recon team had practically formed a guild underneath Jonathan's nose, called the Dawn Watchers they followed a half-elven survival hunter named Dawn Singer, and she liked to live up to her name. Which of course would lead to the small show her team got to view and then the name. Her second was a dwarven warrior wearing heavy mail and carrying twin axes, which he cared for like his own daughters. He was called Whiplash, and nothing else.
They had two medics, a priest and shaman, who did the scribing and cartographer respectively. They had a marksman hunter with a snake who teamed up with a rogue and did who knew what out in the field. That team had stayed around Justice Peak for only a few hours before setting off, only checking in rarely via eagle message. Jonathan took copies of their reports and mapping for his records before sending them on.
Team two had taken the designation of Shock and Awe, as a demolition/recovery team. The knight who commanded them was well versed in prisoner rescue and sabotage tactics from his experience against the orcs, and was very impressed with the skills of his team. His second in command was a priest who ventured into enchantment, capable of blessing items and weapons even in the thick of battle. They had another priestly scribe to increase odds of rescuee survival. The two mages were well versed in fire magic, but differed in secondary focuses with one having a heavy arcane leaning and the other a water leaning.
They had a human warrior with two heavy scimitars, a survival hunter, an elemental shaman, a rogue, and another mage. The third mage was heavily focused on defensive applications of arcane magic and attempting communication magic on Jonathan's orders, so the entire team was resting at base for reports from the Dawn Watchers to guide them. At least they had trapmaking to fill their time, up and down the mountain they went all day.
The heavy assault unit didn't have a name yet, but considering Seamus was their leader it was only a matter of time. The dwarf had made a game out of it, and the names were getting rediculous and likely to send Commander Ashfall up a wall. Things like The Ashen Sword, or Blade, and Ash Guard, Peak Wardens, Justice Guard. Jonathan let them continue as it wasn't his problem, or so his teaching indicated. Seamus' second was a knight who had a tight hold on the men at his command.
First was another knight, then the two priest medics, and the shaman healer. They had two warriors, an elemental shaman, a pair of mages, two hunters, and a rogue. This unit acted as guards around the base and familiarized themselves with the terrain should they be called to battle. The majority of his troops would be off clearing out the centaur once Justice Peak was firmly in their grasp, so Jonathan attempted to familiarize himself with them as much as he could. It was slow going.
Jonathan was the leader of the platoon, despite his age, so he had a pair of knights to act as seconds. The command and engineering unit also had a mage, mostly for communication and defense, a priest, and a shaman healer for casters. They also had three warriors, two hunters, and a rogue to fill out defense of the commander. The golem was mostly assigned to the engineers to help with shoring up their defenses and guard the outpost.
He was grateful they had the tauren and kodo to pull along all their supplies, as the heavy equipment would have been impossible otherwise. The fact the Stone Golem could help push the heavy wagons free of the mud was also a blessing. So far the Peak was coming along well, with fortifications at each level of the four lifts. Watchtowers were being planned on the north and south edges of the peak to watch the plains and pass respectively.
Jonathan gave a sigh as the thunder boomed overhead and resolved himself to a restless night. Light only knew if the storm would last until morning but he hoped not as it would make the rest of the day uncomfortable. Despite his expectations, and due to his worry about his mission, Jonathan found himself swiftly asleep while the weather raged outside his tent.
The sleep had been surprisingly restful for him and so Jonathan found himself atop Justice Peak early the next morning, borrowed spyglass scanning the horizon in the dawning sun. Basking in the light from the sun he came across the sight of the expected kodo shipment being pulled from the mud by a group of soldiers. Slowly tallying up his count Jonathan reached over a hundred and realized it was a full company of reinforcements heading to Justice Peak. He gave a smile as he noticed the group of laborers and craftsmen that assisted the soldiers in freeing the wagon from the mud.
His smile froze as he looked away only to spot movement in the northern foothills. A large band of centaur was heading in the direction of the caravan, though the caravan was closer to the Peak than to the centaur. Jonathan was about to turn and issue orders to the nearby men when he spotted another centaur band heading for the Peak from directly north across the plains.
"Light damn them all," Jonathan cursed as he spun and grabbed the closest person, a large warrior. "Rally the men, we've got centaur coming to attack the Peak while another group is heading for the caravan."
After the warrior sprinted off to gather the men Jonathan rushed to his tent to gather his gear. Cursing the centaur for both attacks he exited his tent as quickly as possible only to see most of Shock and Awe gathered before him. He groaned as he realized several of them were off around the mountain placing traps, and he couldn't delay to gather them.
"All right men, I need a bird heading for that caravan to warn them. Your team is to assist the caravan and get those supplies and men to use as safely as possible. Command and Heavy will hold the Peak at the outer defenses if we can, but don't be surprised to find us having retreated up." Jonathan took a moment to gather his breath. "Light bless us all, good luck. Go!"
Jonathan thanked the experienced among his men for entrenching a wall of spiked logs around the stone and mortar wall. Even with the walls at the height of a man a charging centaur could jump it without the spikes and they didn't need that happening to them. He grabbed a large coil of rope after nearly tripping on in and proceeded to drag it along with him while he smiled.
"Alright," Jonathan told the rest of his men as they gathered at the lift, "I want the mages safely above us on the lift platform so they can rain death upon the centaur. I need some volunteers to drive stakes into the ground and tie rope off to them, we'll trip those beasts as they charge us." Once several people had collected the rope and run off more stakes and more rope, he turned to the remaining combat unit. "Healers and hunters, up with the mages. Give us one shaman for the ground and we can work with that. The rest of you get into defensive positions and prepare yourselves, they aren't that far out."
The gap in the wall that was big enough for the kodo wagon soon found itself filled with steadfast warriors. Jonathan found himself not too far from the front, beside a hunter carrying a wicked axe and another petting a large bear. He wondered why the second hunter was down with them and realized between his blunderbuss and need to control the bear he was forced to fight on the ground. He gave a nod to the dwarf with the bear as he turned his attention to the rest of the men when the warhorns started to sound.
The first few minutes were a mad scramble to maintain the defenses in the front, the shield users taking a battering before the sent the first wave packing with fire, ice, and lightning raining from above along with several volleys of arrows. As he slowed his breathing and pulled his sword from a corpse, Jonathan saw another warrior limping off towards the lift to the healers, his arm hanging to his side. He wasn't given any longer of a break as the next wave of centaur crashed into the bulwark of Justice Peak.
Jonathan was busy fending off a crazed centaur when Seamus entered the battle, but he certainly saw the effect close at hand. Several smoldering and broken bodies remained behind the dwarf and nearby the Stone Golem was crushing centaur with heavy fists and stomping them with stone boots. The centaur limped away from that engagement while several of the defenders had to fall back, dragging a few comrades away from the front.
The spellcasters managed to outright abort another two charges, the spellfire likely killing as many enemies as the defenders on the ground had. Jonathan saw another charge coming, lead by a shaman of their own with lightning arcing from his hands. Feeling a sense of dread he dropped to the floor and avoided the piercing blast of magic that knocked the unfortunate warrior behind Jonathan off his feet in a rain of blood. The healer on the ground was on him in an instant to perform aid as a retaliatory arrow storm killed the centaur shaman.
Shoving himself to his feet Jonathan caught a center by surprise as it charged itself onto his blade. Letting go of the now wedged hilt he grabbed the axe from the dying hand of the centaur and lifted a fallen shield off the ground. He blocked an arrow with the shield as he made sure to keep his position relative to the men, knowing he had no chance if he let himself be surrounded. Already he noticed several centaur singling him out as a weak target so he grit his teeth and went to work once more.
The first three centaur to attempt to attack him met a swirling storm of death by the name of Seamus, fire and lightning arcing from his weapons into his enemies. The dwarf gave a cheeky grin to Jonathan among the carnage before leaping at another enemy attempting to get past the shieldwall. Giving the dwarf a grim look in return Jonathan found himself standing next to the more experience warriors and knights of the shieldwall and quickly fell into the rhythm.
Jonathan blinked back into proper awareness when he noticed a tauren stood over the nearest centaur corpse and, after looking around while behind his shield, realized the fight had finally ended. Sometime during the fighting he had lost himself in block-swing-parry-repeat whilst holding the shieldwall. He gave a grunt followed by a long groan as he registered all the aches and pains he had collected during the fighting.
"The rush finally leave you?" An older knight stood next to Jonathan, sporting a small grin as he watched the younger warrior. "Tends to happen the first time you're properly in a shieldwall. The focus is too strong. You're going to sleep like the dead, pardon me saying it."
He gave a low groan in reply as he limped his way towards the lift. Spotting Oghren doing maitenance to the golem he waved him over and passed command to Seamus, far too tired to deal with anything else until he rested. He'd definitely lost track of time, as there was a small lunch waiting for him when he returned to his tent. He was simply grateful that they had thought of it for him, so after washing off he ate the food as swiftly as he could before slowly reading reports as he tried to ignore the aches.
'There are only so many things someone my age can handle,' Jonathan thought as he looked over the newest reports. He had woken just before evening meal and decided to make up for lost time. The recommendations to turn the canyon the Gelkis centaur had previously commanded into a quarry was a good one, but a large majority of the stone would have to be used to fortify the thing before they got any true use out of it. Of far greater concern were the reports of the ruins to the east, as the Dawn Watchers had already had to fight three patrols.
Demons infested the ruins in great numbers and the presence of so many foul beings was corrupting the land and water around them. Jonathan knew he didn't have the troops to handle a demon infestation, he barely knew anything about them. The rough drawings he was provided at least gave him something to work with so he tracked down the nearest priest and mage and requested an emergency portal and research materials. The mage had departed for Ashfall Landing almost instantly, fear evident on her face, while the priest had frozen briefly before dragging Jonathan to a small tent.
"These texts do not leave your possession, understood?" The stern gaze of the middle aged priest cut off any questions Jonathan could make as he hid the books away. "I will be going with any force to confront those monsters."
It was said, according to the books, that demons had always existed to combat the Church. Apparently several sources indicated an invasion had occured as well it the distant past, so these were likely remnants. It also gave descriptions for several of the creatures and Jonathan paled as he recognized them. He would never admit to being relieved that his men would fight the creatures instead of himself, but he had no desire to face a Satyr in battle. The specialists and priests would find that work stressful and dangerous most likely. The real menace was there were an unknown number of demons, but upwards of one hundred.
This wasn't so bad as the majority were reported to be imps but even more of those could end up being summoned and swarming the combatants. They'd need some serious spellpower to prevent that and while Shock and Awe had some it just wasn't enough to combat the numbers. Alternatively they could have the mages actively focused on keeping the demons suppressed while the bulk of the forces dealt with it. Yes that could potentially work but if any spellcaster of strength was among the demons they would be in danger all the same.
Jonathan had no chance of commanding the company that had reinforced Justice Peak, they were there to stay and already helping the construction efforts. He hoped that Commander Ashfall would send assistance, but if not Jonathan would have to start ordering strikes upon the demons. Wait, he should order a few anyway, as any reinforcements would take time to organize properly.
"Someone get me Seamus Greybraid and Master Sergeant Oghren!" Jonathan let his voice carry from his tent before he dragged himself up in order to get tea. This would likely take a while.
The two dwarves joined him minutes later and sat patiently while he relayed the situation. The looks of disgust on their faces reassured him that the demons needed to be dealt with as quickly as possible. Now he sat calmly drinking his tea as the dwarves loomed over a rough map of the area and the ruins. He had managed to get them to agree to lead a series of strikes upon the demons, in order to gauge their number and positions, but it was a deadly task.
"We've not got the numbers to take both passes," Seamus commented as he eyed the covered table. "If they have more beasties than expected the men would be overrun. Damn, even what we expect would overrun that attempt."
"Standard battle plans flew out the window awhile ago," Oghren laughed as he pointed to the northern section of the ruins. "We should take that pass and then carve our way through the city. We won't have the men to hold the pass anyway, so we just take a tower."
"You'd have to kill an awful lot of demons to secure the area. It seems that a large tower near the pass is in mostly good condition, but it is also likely to be filled with demons." Jonathan gave the more experienced fighters a grin. "If you just take that tower the first night you can proceed to rampage through the city the next. I'm sorry that we can't send the golem in but it's too valuable to lose due to the slow speed."
"They do fine on campaign because of the march speed, and now the kodo can transport them, but I see yer point," Seamus agreed. "We can't risk the kodo in there so we're goin' by foot."
"I'll get as many men as I can from Commander Ashfall, but if not Command will proceed to the pass and fortify it ourselves. Do not give up your position to join us, you'll likely be more useful there." Jonathan could only imagine how one force in a tight location could be a demonic playground. No need to risk that. "Good luck and the Light be with you."
The response from Commander Ashfall reached him by morning. "Captain Jonathan, continue operations in the region. Reinforcements are coming. Eliminate the demons with extreme prejudice. A situation has developed and I am unable to join. Commander Greybraid has some new volunteers, he'll inform you upon meeting. Commander Damon Ashfall." Jonathan read through the letter brought by gryphon and gave a sigh of relief. With any luck they'd reach him before evening and they could march in the morning. "Are you assigned to the Peak?" The gryphon rider in question nodded and stood at attention. "I need you in the air over the ruins, we've got men attempting to take the area, and they could use the air support."
"Understood Sir." With the man quickly departing, seeing as they already had a gryphon patrol in the air, Jonathan turned to his work.
He had already ordered the Dawn Watchers to gather as much intelligence on the area as they could, but they wouldn't be able to risk any heavy fighting. The Heavy Assault team would support Shock and Awe while clearing territory so they would be fine. If the Commander sent replacements he could return the Dawn Watchers to normal operations but at the moment he needed them harrassing the demons just as much as the others.
Jonathan had also taken a fair number of the men assigned to Justice Peak and ordered them to patrol the borders with deadly intent. Centaur or demon, nothing was to interfere in the construction. Those men had already ridden out, but they were well trained to keep an eye to the sky in case of signals from gryphons. The gryphon riders carried colored smoke bombs they could release into the skies that would be seen for quite a distance so that helped greatly.
One of the mages had terrified Jonathan by requesting imp blood for an experiment, but the man was truly just attemtping to create more communication magic. He needed the blood of an imp to finish a stage of the research and so was granted reluctant leave to join the forces already in the field. Luckily the recovery time of the gryphon delayed the riders departure long enough to give the mage a lift. He just hoped that didn't come back to haunt him.
Several paper birds would fly through the camp each day before unfolding to deliver their message, but while it was interesting it would not make reporting back to Commander Ashfall any easier. Jonathan had still yet to discover if it was a mage who did that, a priest, or just a lucky scribe. Likely some combination of the three. He hoped to keep them occupied and so kept them out of the way with research. He spent the morning organizing his own forces to take the pass and making sure Justice Peak would run smoothly in his absence.
Commander Greybraid sent word shortly after midday that the Ancients would be keeping the centaur occupied should they attempt to move into the area, and that his forces would bypass the Peak in favor of the southern pass. Greybraid himself would lead the reinforcements before joining his troops via gryphon. Seeing as Commander Ashfall had named him Captain Jonathan, it was likely another platoon sized force. That would go well as he was unlikely to have been able to command more than a company in any aspect, the paperwork alone would overwhelm him.
Several hours later a report arrived from the Dawn Watchers that indicated centaur we even further east past the demons, so that would need an eye kept on it. Commander Greybraid would likely be able to handle it if he had the troops. It was coming down to a matter of numbers and that was never Jonathan's strongest point.
When Commander Greybraid finally arrived shortly before evening meal, he introduced Jonathan to his new men. Alpha, Beta, and Omega Squad were designed specifically for the role of demon elimination it seemed. Omega Squad simply asked where they were needed and then departed before the meal, intent on finding the Dawn Watchers and relieving them of their hazardous duty. Alpha and Beta squad would be his reinforcements to take the northern half of the city, as Commander Greybraid was leading the south.
"I've got three hundred fine soldiers," Greybraid commented happily when warned about the centaur. "We'll destroy those savages if they dare to interfere."
"Won't that leave the Landing rather weak on defenders?" Jonathan was rather worried about that point, and most importantly about his Ma.
"We made contact," Commander Greybraid grinned. "These boys are all volunteers from back home. Took all yesterday to get them through the portal."
Jonathan could hardly believe it, the mages had actually made it work? "Truly? What about the Prince?"
"Oh aye, Prince Varian is safely in Lordaeron. Old Lothar himself escorted him after all. We won't get many more men, but we've got some supplies coming to us." The dwarf gave the boy another grin. "That's not all that happened, but you'll have to wait. We've got demons to kill.