It took four days for the rangers’ message of an encroaching gnoll horde to reach Alterac City, and another seven for a extermination force to be sent east join with the scouts and concoct an appropriate plan to erase the threat from the kingdom.

Lora left the planning to the human commanders. Her place was in the brutal, glorious melee, not in the tents straining her brains over tactics and strategy. In the same manner, as captain of the palace guard, she kept a loosely organized order, her only true duties being the training and assuring the loyalty of Kyle’s house guard. Things like schedules and budgets, she left to her second-in-command or Pelton.

It was a cushy enough job for her self-exile. Far from the suicidal task she envisioned when Krasus called in his debt, and not as boring as she had imagined. The humans she was responsible for were earnest in their desire to improve themselves, and it was amusing enough to send them to the dirt each time to toughen them up and knock some proper (dwarven) common sense into them.

And as captain of the palace guard, she should be back at the palace, eking out the amusement she can from wearing down the off-duty guards with training. But Kyle was a decent king, and sent her out here for some fun…is what Lora would say if the boy hadn’t saddled her with testing his stupid contraptions.

She and the small pack of adequately trained palace guards stood apart from the rest of the nascent Alterac military. Some looks were earned because of the things they were testing, but the soldiers generally knew better than to gawk for too long. After all, near everyone was carrying the new repeater bows, to go along with their spears, swords and shields. Every member within the Alterac military was trained to be able to use the bows, right down to the cooks and maids. Sure they mostly wielded the weaker variant of the bow, but even the most tenacious orc would be slowed by such a storm of arrows.

The boxy things were made to be easy to produce as well, being mass produced along with other equipment completely within Alterac so that it met Kyle’s crazy defensive doctrines. The boy was being a bit too paranoid, making preparations as if his neighbors would actually invade him. The human kings were daft, not insane. Well, not entirely insane, anyway.

 

As she chuckled quietly at the thought of Gilnean soldiers going up against the palace guard she’d trained, the commander of this ‘task force’, some young human who was smart enough to be nervous about his first command, eventually came out of the command tent and made a determined beeline towards Lora.

“Ma’am.”

“Lora.”

Whatever resolve in him evaporated as his head tilted quizzically to one side. “Pardon?”

“Name’s Lora. Not ‘ma-am’.”

“Oh. Uh. Er… Lady Lora-”

“Just Lora.”

“Lora. Right. Well…” It took a couple of amusing seconds for him to recover, and credit to the lad he didn’t try coughing or mumbling or shaking his head like what most people would do. The commander just willed his determination back and fixed Lora with a serious look.

“My apologies for the…confusion. Anyway, with the gnolls setting camp not too far from here, a plan has been devised to seize the moment.”

There was a pause, and he gave her an apprehensive look. “You are free to go over it, any feedback would be appreciated, of course. I just hope that you don’t take the-”

Lora raised a hand to cut the man off. “Nope. Not interested, not offended. Kyle’s handed command to ye, so I’m gonna trust ye to lead. Makes fer an easier time all ‘round. I’m just here to break skulls in a particular way, and report back; it’s more than enough work fer me.”

The apprehension bled away from the human commander with wary slowness, but he eventually nodded. “I…understand. I appreciate your trust in my abilities.”

Lora grunted an approval and let him get on with it. Experience had taught her with the wrong input, these types of folks would just end up running their mouths with their politeness and courtesies, trying to hammer home that they’re not trying to be arrogant or boastful. At least the humans she’s met so far aren’t as insistent or insincere about it.

“Ahem. As I was saying, a plan has been agreed upon, and considering what the palace guard has been…equipped with, I hope you don’t mind that they hold a flank?”

Without bothering to glance back to her merry little squad, the dwarf shrugged her shoulders, the heavy pauldrons exaggerating the movement. “Point me to where I needta be.”

The summary of the overall plan was given, and Lora didn’t wrack her head too much trying to picture who went where on a map she couldn’t imagine in her head. Simply put, they were carefully encircling the gnolls. Skirmishing would initiate things, to put into large scale practice the doctrines of wielding repeater bows. There were fallbacks in case it didn’t work, and plans for if it did.

What really mattered was Lora and the palace guards’ place in the whole thing: they’d be given a chance to show off once things got stuck in, and if things went well, Lora would get to enjoy herself smashing the ugly furballs into pulp.

It took a whole day of tedious sneaking to get into position. There were more gnoll patrols than rangers, so lots of discretion was required to march armored boots in a wide circuit around the camp. A few patrols were ambushed by sheer luck, making it that much easier for everyone on the right side of the coming battle. Gnolls being gnolls, they’d probably not notice their missing kin until they began starving.

Lora had her people get into formation right as dawn broke, skulking in a particularly thick underbrush littered with twisted, gnarled roots and a hedge-like barrier of thorny bushes. Even to the dwarf’s more straightforward combat sensibilities, even to a starving gnoll’s, this section was considered impractical terrain to launch an assault from. Hence why their makeshift barricades were the thinnest from this approach, with only a token of guards and patrols lurking about. 

It was also why the palace guard was put here in the first place.

The trio of rangers attached to the palace guard did a good job at hiding their presence, even the new toys they brought with them, with literal curtains of leaves and branches.

With her team getting into position as quietly as possible, the most dreaded part of combat began: the waiting.

Lora did her best not to fidget as she stared forwards at the gnoll camp for things to start. It took the orange dawn skies to melt into blue before the sounds of the first phase wafted over. Snarls of surprise rang out from the camp, peppered with barks of alarm as no doubt the Alterac soldiers made themselves known with a torrent of arrows.

So concentrated was the barrage that the morning air became filled with the fat whizzing sounds from streams of loosed arrows buzzing like an angry swarm, and the never-ending echoes of twang-cracks from the repeater bows’ mechanisms. It took some effort to filter out the droning and cracking to hear the yips and growls of the pincushioned sacks of fur.

“That sounds fun to be in,” a guard beside her muttered lightly, and the dwarf grunted in agreement.

“Would’ve been nice to see how that worked against the green skins back then.”

A low echo of hums and grunts rose as the guards around her agreed with the sentiment, though the hush from a ranger shut everyone up before they gave themselves away.

Not that it was going to be likely, Lora thought. The gnolls on this front were already running off, no doubt to reinforce their comrades.

Hopefully they wouldn’t all die, otherwise Lora would’ve come all the way here for nothing.

Just as she began worrying about wasting her time, a blast sounded, followed by a bolt of fire shooting up into the air. “About damned time,” she muttered as her eyes followed the flare up into the sky. Then the armored dwarf glanced over one shoulder, while lifting and resting her axe on the other.

“Right lads, time for some action! Don’t none of ye dare shame me by dying today!”

A mixed chorus of nervous and cocky assents sounded out, and then Lora hid a gulp as she grabbed tightly onto a gilded handle with her free hand while the heels of her boots knocked on the rounded hull she sat on. “Right then, let’s hope I don’t feckin’ regret this… Charge! Hyah!”

The lurch of sudden acceleration almost sent Lora flying off as the probe underneath her launched forwards with a thrum of air. A pack of golden eyeballs broke through the foliage cover with sounds of barely restrained terror, not savage warcries, from their riders. The probes shot out of the forest without legs to trip against roots or stumble through bushes. 

Kyle’s ability to summon so many of them had led him to this insane theory of using them as mounts. Riding on something that floated above every obstacle sounded impressive on paper, but even back in practice, sitting atop the thrumming balls had been a…challenging experience. The handles that were most certainly welded onto their backs at the last minute gave just the minimum assurance of remaining on top, while the makeshift saddles forced the riders to sit in a frankly childish position with legs splayed out. 

So not only did it feel bloody dangerous to be holding onto your dear life atop one of the probes moving at full speed, it made you look stupid as well.

But as they soared over the barricades of bones and branches (that broke under the cushion of air underneath the probes) within seconds, Lora decided that maybe looking like an idiot wasn’t too high a price to pay.

She reevaluated that assessment further as they came across some gnolls. Most of the mutt-headed brutes were slack-jawed as they turned to witness the palace guards’ charge, as if they were struggling to process what they were seeing.

Most of them.

A few had the presence of mind or instincts to take aim with their crossbows or throwing weapons. Lora braced herself, but bolts, javelins and axes bounced off empty air with a flare of blue light that betrayed a protective bubble around every member of the flying cavalry. The dwarf broke into a savage grin as a javelin snapped in mid-air right before her, and she hefted her axe single-handedly.

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun…”

The gnolls didn’t get the chance for a second volley as the probe cavalry slammed into them. Sheer metallic mass collided into the loose ranks, killing the gnolls on impact and sending their broken corpses hurtling through the air. At the same time, the riders swung their axes and thrust their spears, adding more to the tally of the dead. The palace guard kept swinging and stabbing away as their probes began circling like bulls in an arena, looking for more victims to crash into. The commotion inevitably drew attention, and more gnolls came streaming between tents and dens to meet them. 

Not a few of the gnolls stumbled to a halt in disbelief at the sight, holding up their enraged kin behind them.

It served to make the palace guards’ work easier as the probes crashed through the press of furry bodies and sent them flying. 

“Come on lads! Fer Alterac! Fer King Kyle!”

Lora was laughing with glee as she leaned over and let gravity drive her axe down into the skull of a gnoll only just getting up. The heavy blade barely had time to split apart the head before it was yanked out as her probe flew onto the next target. She quickly resetted her weapon for the next swing, letting it swoop down to bite into a snarling enemy who was in the middle of leaping out of her mount’s way. All the while, her vision was strobed with blue light as crossbow bolts and throwing axes fell harmlessly away from the semi-invisible bubble protecting her.

This was glorious. 

She watched as up ahead, a couple of gnolls braced their spears against her probe, and for a split second heard the snap of the shafts as wood gave way to metal. Then came the grisly crunch of mangy bodies with barely a yelp between them. Off to the side, one of the guards was holding onto his probe’s handles for dear life with both hands, weapon abandoned as the oversized orb ran amok like an enraged bull. Those gnolls that survived the impact were further crushed as the probe flew over them and the arcane winds keeping them afloat flattened them.

Off in the distance, Lora saw a field of littered corpses, each studded with multiple short arrows. Beyond that, there were the backs of gnolls engaged in a desperate fight against the shield wall of the Alterac soldiery. Those that weren’t clinging onto the wall of armor were picked apart by the everpresent rain of arrows from the soldiers hanging behind the front ranks. She could just make out the spears piercing the matted hides of the creatures, creating a brief opening that was quickly filled by other gnolls eager to actually fight rather than sit back to play shooting target.

A long-eared ranger perched on a tree caught her attention, the slender arm working with machine-like repetition to quickly send arrow after arrow into eyes and opened snouts. Lora counted fourteen arrows before the elf had to stop and reach for her quiver, but in the interim her partner appeared after completing his own reload to pick up the slack.

Then the proper cavalry came stampeding into view. Armored lancers on actual barded horses swept through the gnolls’ formation and signaled the beginning of the end. Lances skewered and hooves trampled to add to the rapidly growing count of enemy dead. The lancers cut through the baying mob and began roaming the edges of the battlefield to run down those that tried to flee.

There would be no prisoners here - gnolls were not the kind you’d let off with a stern talking to or a fine. Let loose, eventually they’d forget what they went through and make another stupid attempt again.

Lora’s attention was dragged back to her immediate surroundings with a sudden jolt as her gilded mount crashed through a collection of branches that could barely be called a hut to chase a fleeing gnoll. It took her only a couple of seconds to read its movements, and the dwarf leaned over with axe at the ready as it made a desperate leap to one side. She gave a grunt as it sunk into her target’s shoulder, though with a quick yank the blade was pulled out instead of being stuck and dragging the body along with her.

Another pass was made, killing three more gnolls, before the probe finally slowed to a stop. Remembering Kyle’s instructions, Lora gave the thing a respectful pat on its ‘hull’, and it hovered lower to the ground, allowing her to climb off with some dignity. She found the other guards running up to her, drenched in blood and gore not of their own. A few were looking a bit green - probably from their hectic ride - but otherwise it seemed that no casualties were suffered.

“Well then, that was a hoot,” she said with a cheery grin, ignoring the strain in her legs from bracing herself on the probe for so long. Excited nods were given as the palace guards surveyed the camp they’d literally crashed through. Not even a tent pole was standing upright amidst the shattered camp, and broken corpses at awkward angles littered the place. In exchange, Lora, her fellow guards and their gilded mounts were stained with the blood of the dead.

It was a terrific exchange.

“Oh this would’ve been nice to have against the green skins back then,” she remarked, mirroring her earlier sentiment with the repeater bows.

They turned back to the sound of thundering hooves rampaging over the last of the gnolls. The Alterac soldiers were already breaking formation to begin the tedious job of retrieving arrows. The commander and his retinue rode through the battlefield outside the camp towards the happily isolated palace guards.

“Well met, ma’am-”

“Lora.”

“Ah, sorry. Lora.” The clumsiness was quickly replaced with a giddy smile as the man glanced at the drones idly staring off into space. “That was a good show the palace guard put out there. Those…things already looked imposing, yet I must confess that I hadn’t expected such a performance.”

“You and I both,” she replied to the chuckles of the other guards behind her.

“Do you think…”

“Nah,” Lora preempted with a shake of her head. “The king’s gonna keep the probes exclusive to the castle guard,” she recited, remembering the important bits from Pelton’s too-long speech. “Takes a lotta effort to summon and all that.”

“Ah, I see. I see. A shame, it does look like fun…”

She preempted that as well. “No, only those at…’attuned’ to the things can ride ‘em. Ye need to talk to the king for that.”

The commander deflated further, and gave an understandably glum nod.

A ranger ran up, breaking the growing camaraderie between soldiers and royal guard with her grave expression.

“Commander, you’ll want to see this.”

The elf produced a small bloodied sack, and as the man took it (and almost dropped it from misjudging its weight), Lora heard the familiar jingle of small metallic pieces.

Currency.

The commander peered into the sack and his expression instantly hardened.

“Found on the alpha,” she said coldly. “I’ve instructed everyone to look for more.”

“You think someone sent them here?” he asked, all youthful nervousness gone, replaced with a cold affront. 

Lora felt embers of her own anger glowing in her.

The elf shrugged. “I’m not sure. Gnolls do keep trinkets and coins, but I’ve yet to hear of so much gold on any single one of them…”

“Take this to the king,” Lora growled, disgust clear in her voice at the thought of someone paying a whole horde of gnolls to munch their way through Alterac. “Kyle will want to see it.”

She glanced back at the suddenly dour guards. “C’mon boys. Dig through the camp, see if there’s anything else we can bring back.”

With the mood changed, soldiers and guards alike spread out and began sifting through the camp and bodies.