The Accidental Archmage by Edmund Batara (read out loud books .TXT) 📕

with the basic spell of fire.

He could also already see the next group of attackers, the ogres, and following them,

more jotnar. All he can do now is to try to conceal his attacks as though coming from

Scarburg. He was mindful of the second host following the one now attacking. But he

was hopeful that he had reduced the numbers enough to enable Scarburg to resist this

first attack. As a bonus, a lot of mages have already been eliminated and the mantlets

available to the enemy also have been greatly reduced. He trusted that Scarburg’s

archers will make the most of the opportunity.

The fourth volley arrived. Tyler followed the same tactic but with a third trio of fireballs for good measure, hoping it won’t be noticed in the confusion. He gambled that any

observing dokkalfr will see it as projectiles from a late catapult. But with the gory

bedlam before him, he doubted any of them would have the time to watch and

observe. Most of the fireballs now centered around ice giants, trolls, and mages. He

deemed them as the most dangerous elements of the group in front of him. Again, the

detonating fireballs wreaked havoc among the dokkalfr. Even if focused on the giants,

trolls, and mages, the resulting explosions decimated nearby formations. The deadly

red and yellow blossoms again sent body parts flying in all directions with pieces of

weapons and armor acting like shrapnel. The bloody and chaotic scene before him

started to have an abstract quality to it. Mostly red in color.

But Tyler could only see what was in front of him. He couldn’t assess the progress of

the enemies attacking Scarburg. Even though bloodied, the first ranks of

the dokkalfr had already joined the attack and were beyond his sight. But he assessed

the casualties he inflicted to be around twenty percent of the enemy host, primarily due

to the packed formations being attacked by him at a closer distance than the catapults.

With many of them wounded and with less protection from arrows, he doubted that

they would be able to breach the walls after passing through the lethal gauntlet of the

obstacle field. Even the dokkalfr formations were in disarray, each company, or what’s left of it, rushing to the attack in no discernible order. Then the ogres arrived.

From what he had observed, the ogres were a sturdy foe though vulnerable to his

lightning strikes. But he couldn’t use that spell now as it would attract attention to his

sniping. He hoped his gifts of fire would do as well. But the ogre leader gave him a

present. As they reached the area in front of Tyler, they stopped and began to dress

their ranks. The group collecting stragglers and organizing themselves before pushing

forward.

Either the ogre leader is stupidly emulating human and dokkalfr formations or confident

enough of withstanding the catapult bombardment with few losses, he mused while

waiting for the next volley to arrive.

When it hit, he again followed the same tactic but avoided the third fireball barrage to

avoid detection. Instead, he focused on increasing the explosive force of the detonating

balls of fire. The blasts again rocked the field, adding to the increasing din arising from the attackers and the defenders of Scarburg.

His bombardment did inflict casualties but not as many as with the dokkalfr. Many of

those who fell down when the blasts started were able to get up. Shit! Must be too

dumb to die, he cursed. He misjudged the contributing effect of shrapnel on the

smaller dokkalfr compared to the ogres.

The bright side of the situation was that many fascines were burning and the wooden

planks some ogres carried were broken or left on the ground. After that volley, the

ogres joined the assault. He couldn’t cast yet as the volley from Scarburg hasn’t been

fired. But he didn’t give them much chance of breaching the walls. Spears and halberds

will keep them at bay. If the total attacking force can be reduced to three to two

thousand by the time they reach the walls, there was no way they could take them

when defended by two thousand men.

The final group of attackers, made up of jotnar, started rushing forward even before

entering the killing zone of the catapults. Which he thought was a good idea on the part

of the jotnar commander. But he still continued with his bombardment under cover of

the catapult’s fire. But this time, he reverted back to the five grenade-sized fiery

explosions in two volleys, considering that the running jotnar were in a scattered

formation. He didn’t reduce their numbers as much as he wanted to. It was difficult to

target them as many were of the beast kind. He figured the defenders could take care

of them. He was more interested now in the wagons carrying fascines and wicker

mantlets as well as the catapults following them. But they were so slow in reaching his

range. Yet he knew destroying them was a must.

Then suddenly, Habrok was at his side.

“My lord, Jorund reports enemies coming through the destroyed forest area. He estimates them at another two hundred. Mixed force. Jotnar, dokkalfr, and giants. With

mages and lots of archers too.”

Now the shit really has hit the fan! Those ogres finally got to report back. Funny, I was

hoping they would never stop running. Well, no rest for the wicked as they say.

He quickly crept backward out of the tarp. Crouching, the two went to the closest

lookout point. Tyler could see the enemy streaming through the destroyed forest. They

have not yet reached the area edging the staked clearing. But the bulk was already

moving towards it and a sizable number was straggling.

The two bowmen have not yet fired any volleys, waiting for his order though some

enemy had already reached the extreme range of the bows. Good, he thought as he

wanted to see first how the enemy would try to take the position below them. In a few

moments, the enemy archers let loose their arrows, directing them towards the low cliff

and its barricades. He observed that the archers were spread out among the attackers,

letting loose at their will. Then fire blasts started erupting in the cliff area together with ice spells which sent out sharp shards upon exploding. Even