Part 1 - Ideals Vs. Reality
A day had passed with no attacks from the rats. With nothing really important going on besides finishing the second trench filled with spears, buying armor, and training. The morning he wished not to come was upon them. Urist sat in silence in the civilization room preparing himself mentally taking deep breaths.
He was nervous about what the future held in store for them.
I’ve done the best I could with such short notice. I’m not even a person who should be a leader. Afterall, I’m just some random schmuck who knows some things on survival. People are going to die today because I wasn’t strong enough.
People that died in another life have to live through it a second time. How much blood do we have to spill before everyone lives a happy and fulfilling life? Even if I can bring them back later on. Will I be strong enough to keep them alive at that time?
Clenching Greedy Serpent in his hands Urist took a deep breath to calm his trembling.
I’ll do my best and if it isn’t good enough I’ll surpass my limits until this body is broken.
Finding resolve, Urists body stopped shaking as his eyes sharpened coldly. Pulling up the timers he found that they had two hours and eleven minutes left. Having collected himself he walked out of the cave to see everyone moving around for last preparation, stop and look at him.
Looking at their gazes he could see that they wanted something from him. No expecting something from him.
Steeling himself against the gazes of his fellow dwarf, he planted the butt of his spear into the ground. The spear stood firm allowing him to cross his arms over his chest and look at his fellow dwarf.
“Everyone stop what you are doing. I have something to say before we all walk into hell together.”
When he felt everyone’s eyes upon him, he felt the pressure of wanting to fall down on his knees and give up. But he couldn’t. He just couldn’t afford to do such a stupid thing to drop mortal.
He had to be strong.
He had to lead.
He had to get them through to see another day.
“My fellow brothers and sisters. Although we may not be related by blood, we are bound together by the flow of destiny. Our enemy will show us no quarter in our upcoming fight against them. We cannot run, hide, or suffer defeat for if we do we will all die. Instead, we will fight tooth and nail to show that this is not our end.
We will remember that today will be the start of our glory. That these vermin will become a footnote to our great history. So sharpen your spears, steel your nerves, for we will win this day no matter the cost. For we shall survive to see another day, Now scream it with me KILL!”
The crowd of dwarfs responded in kind to their leader, “KILL! KILL! KILLLL!!!”
Lacking their usual attitudes of laziness, a tinge of bloodlust had replaced their gaze as they screamed bloody murder.
Moral high, home advantage, and well-rested. I hoped it would be enough to carry us through the flames of war.
He knew they would be facing an army of twenty to thirty thousand rats against their one hundred and fifty strong dwarfs. Despite their superior weapons, a height advantage, killing trenches, and even magic superiority he did not delude himself that today would be hard-fought.
Drawing Greedy spear from the ground, he walked up to the staircase and stood on the wall to watch his fellow dwarfs double-check the defenses. Looking down he could see that the twins were leading fellow earth mages around to make sure no tunnel came out of the ground.
The smiths hurriedly making last-minute weapons. The bombs being rapidly distributed to at least five per dwarf. With the more important personnel holding the metal variants. On every dwarf in their back pouch, a single berserk potion lay ready to be used as a last resort.
The sadistic healer and her second hand sat far back covered by two warriors in case the rats tried to ambush them. The mages made sure to top up their mana taking turns to rest under the statue.
Silently Ubel appeared behind Urist, “So are you prepared for what's to come? Kill your ideas fool. Dwarfs are going to die today and there is nothing you can do.”
Instead of turning to Ubel, Urist decided to watch the bloody colored scenery, “You know you suck at pep talks.”
“I didn’t come to ‘pep talk’. I came to tell you that you can’t save everyone so give it up.”
“Does it matter?”
“Eh?”
“I mean, if I die then you being one of the smartest here have a good chance of being the leader. So why try to convince me not to throw myself into the fire to save another?”
Ubel snorted, “I’m not cut out to be a leader. Simple as that.”
“And why is that? A man of your stature would easily do well in the role of leadership.”
When Ubel didn’t respond. Urist had a nudging feeling to turn around and see Ubel’s expression up until he heard clothing being removed.
“Turn around.”
“I don’t swing that way sorry.”
“Just turn around I want you to see my failure.”
Unable to stop his curiosity, Urist turned around and what he saw made his eyes go wide. All along Ubels cheat and arms various burn scars could be seen. It was to the point that Urist couldn’t pick out any unblemished skin. How could someone be so horribly scarred and still be living?!
“For my mistake of letting one million people die, I took on the punishment of burning. Inch by inch, day by day for four months until I came to know what pain truly is. Those that are not decisive will lose what was everything if they can’t make the necessary sacrifices.”
Slowly buttoning up his military coat Ubel looked Urist dead in the eye before turning around to take care of some minor task.
Be before fully leaving he stopped and looked over his shoulder and pushed his glasses up at the stunned Urist.
“Remember fool, every choice has a cost. Learn this lesson before you fuck up and get everyone killed by your selfish desires.”
Walking down the stairs Ubel departed leaving Urist something to mull over as war approached.
Ideals Vs. Reality.
A choice that every person must make in their lives. To live in ignorance and fool himself or accept the cold harsh truth of reality. Left alone now, he felt the weight of the world suddenly hit him. It seemed intent on crushing him and his ideals to dust.
Part 2 - War
Time dripped like grains of sand until only there were seconds left.
10,9,8,7…
4…3…2…1...0...
The bamboo event has ended.
And like magic, the army on the wall could see changes to the world. Bamboo began to shrink, seeds began to rot, and the bloody color. It didn’t take long for the forest to return to its original look making the dwarfs amazed.
Perhaps only a few minutes or so had passed, but soon the earthquake started to shake. Urist knew it was no earthquake, instead of the movement of an army on the march of an army heading to siege.
With their food supply gone they wouldn’t be able to run away anymore. Today will be our final battle against these vermin. As expected, the first out of the wave of rats will be the regular and the slightly bigger rats.
Giving a rough estimate, their number totaled over to ten thousand as they smashed into the second line of trench defense. The rats once again gave their lives by impaling themselves on the spikes making a pathway full made out of bodies. A thousand died to make it before the water mages acted to push more rats into the trenches killing another seven hundred.
But the rats felt no fear charging into the last trench line impaling themselves once again. Thankfully this one was deeper, killing another three thousand plus using the last two water mages to push that number another eight hundred.
Before they reached the wall over half their number had been slaughtered before the swarm. Although their numbers culled, with the number of dwarfs they had no choice but to light the oil trench on fire.
Torches were thrown into the trench of oil as the rat smashed into the wall. Soon the smell of flesh burning filled the air causing Urist to frown as hoped that this would stall them and allow the mages to thin their numbers. What he didn’t expect were the rats to use their own bodies to snuff out the flames! Wide-eyed they watched as the crazy rats used their flaming bodies to plug the holes into the walls and make corpse ramps.
As the suicide wave gave up their lives, ten thousand rats that consisted of quarters, halves and three-fourths class sized rats slaughtered forth.
Urist cursed under his breath when he saw the rat force pile up and try snuff out his and Uria’s Origin flames with sheer mass. Although our flames are powerful if it uses another source like oil to spread it’ll only act like slightly better than a regular fire. And with all these rats filling up the trench-like sand it’ll give these elites the time they need to climb and attack the wall.
Urist cursed as corpses piled up to the point that they had overpowered the pushers and mace spinners. Thankfully before the second wave reached the walls what was left of the first change was pretty much wiped. As Urist was about to douse the ramp in Origin fire and burn the bodies to ash, something caught his eye as he saw in the sky made him go pale.
Ten thousand flying rats flying from all directions aimed at the wall. That wasn’t all, as another wave of five thousand rats charged out of the jungle. These charging rats were the size of dwarfs if not larger all wielding red bamboo spears.
In their ranks were a number of them who were at the size of large gorillas; that were ripped to the point that bodybuilders would blush and be ashamed. The one thing that caught his eye though was at the back of the army, one that stood double the size of the biggest rat gorilla.
With his good eyesight, he could see that this one had a scar over one of his eyes. Instantly, Urist knew he couldn’t use any of his fire for the air or the ground. He needed to save his power to fight off the elite army of the Rat King. So he made his instructions clear, “Blow up the ramps, Blood Mages shoot them down from the sky. Everyone, cover the mages so they don’t get swarmed by the bat rats.”
On his order, the warriors began to move and circle around the mages as the commoners began to throw bombs and shouting profanities. The blood mages began pulling out blood crystals from their leather pouches. The blood mages hearts ached at losing such precious resources but gritted their teeth and started chanting.
Blood energy began to form patterns in the air and before the rat bats descended a volley of exploding blood shards littered the air like anti-air.
As they watch the bat rats die in droves the blood mages wept except for Vlad who laughed fanatically. “Die vermin scum! Die!”
Corpses fell from the sky and littered the base with the stench of blood and burning bodies. Vlad transformed into a one-man army compared to the other three blood mages. His spells were on point killing tens to hundreds at a time while the others were struggling to keep up. The battle was chaotic as the flying bastards tried to divebomb dwarfs and slit throats with their razor-sharp wings.
Thankfully before the shit hit the base, Urist ordered all noncombatants, and useful items to be moved into the cave. Eventually, the blood mage ran out of crystals and with no more anti-air the remaining thousand strong rat bats had free reign to start attacking the dwarfs. Screams and shouts filled the air as dwarven blood began to fly. The wounded and blood mages were lead by the defender peasants to retreat into the cave as they tried to stop the rat bats from dive-bombing them.
It now had become a harsh battle of about ninety dwarfs vs. seven thousand rats. It was at this point the enraged Urist shouted to Uria and the fire mage, “Burn the skies and kill those fuckers.”
With a nod, the two gathered flame energy and shot out two clouds of fire one scarlet and one orange. The two expended most of their mana to burn the skies to burn the rat bats out of the sky leaving only a few staggerers to keep their lives. Charred bodies fell from the sky, dwarven war cries filled the air, and rat brains were splattered along the wall.
Six thousand rats vs. eighty-five dwarfs.
Pushing his glasses up Saren ordered. “Spike the wall Acar. Kill as many as you can and retreat to the cave.”
“Yes, sir.”
With that command, hundreds of ice spears appeared on the corpse ramp impaling the invaders and stopping the charge momentarily.
“All remaining spearmen, warriors and mages left with enough juice to the wall. We will fight to the last man standing! KILL!”
The crowd of angry dwarfs, “KILLLLL!!!”
Rocks were thrown like cannonballs, spears stabbed forth, and magic filled the battleground. The large rats had given up attempts to climb the highly contested corpse walls and instead tried to punch a hole into the wall with brute strength. The strength alone of these gorilla-sized rats caused the to wall crack and move.
Unicy shouted as she shattered gorilla rat heads one by one with her iron arrows. “Twist the ruby on the Wooden grenades and throw them over the wall see if we can't blast these fuckers to kingdom come!”
As ordered the dwarfs threw grenade after grenade over the wall in attempts to kill the gorilla rats. Explosions, fire, blood, and body parts, filled the air as hundreds of grenades exploded wave after wave.
After the huge explosion, for the first time, the battlefield grew quiet. The dwarfs stood momentary blank for a moment as their ears rang from the shockwaves. It was only after the smoke cleared that the dwarfs' moods became somber as the gorilla rats, although bloody stood firm. The hearty bastards soon resumed on trying to smash down the wall.
Urist, in a fit of rage, threw a metal grenade at the gorilla rats and succeeded in blowing off their monstrous limbs. Without hesitation rocks and all of the grenades were expended killing off about another two thousand rats before they breached the wall. The wind mages then summoned blades of wind to cut down their numbers further before they too left the wall.
In these attacks, the few remaining flying rats attacked the peasants trying to bite into their throats before the rats were crushed or stabbed to death. Fifteen dwarfs were heavily wounded in these attacks but the flying rat army was gone. A few peasants broke off to carry those still living back to the cave to try to be saved.
Although they had killed so many rats Urist didn’t delude himself. The true decisive war began now.
Sixty-five dwarfs vs. an army of 3500 elite rats.
All or nothing now Urist thought, “Everyone, drink the berserk potions. It's do or die now!”
Part 3 - For the Glory of Dwarven Kind
Popping the tops off the berserker potions, the warriors and peasants drank the forbidden elixir and exploded with power. They slaughtered into the hole with Fist Mage Ayil leading the charge.
And they did, in the back, Spirit Charmer Helga held out her hand and began to chant.
“Story of old, I call you forth from the Alabalsker Records. Heed my call for I require your presence. Awaken, the guardian of Highsky. Angel Balsker.”
Over on the side, Urist drank his berserk potion, unleashed his strength and coated his body in origin flames. In a flash, he jumped into the horde of rats aiming to take the king's life. He knew he needed to kill it as it was their only path of survival.
Urist wasn’t a fool as he recognized the scar that he left on the king and intended to finish what he started. With a roar of fury, flesh clashed with flesh. Spear clashed with claw. Civilization and beast collided, intent on killing one another until only one side remained.
Every second counted as dwarfs tore into the battleline killing three or four rats with a swing of their weapons. Despite the armor, they wore and their increased prowess they took wounds large and small.
Not to be blocked by the Rat Kings elite, Urist charged straight at the king who had broken through the walls. His elite guard tried to block his way but Urist swung Greedy Serhant and tried to crush through with sheer brutality. But was surprised to be blocked by the gorilla rats; not to be dissuaded he let out a roar of fury.
“Get the fuck out of my way!”
Putting every ounce of his strength into his spear he stabbed forth with his spear sending out a torrent of flames intent on ending it with this one attack. Only to be shocked when a large shadow appeared in front of the flames devouring them in an instant.
The shadow didn’t stop there as is moved forward to consume Urist. Sensing the danger of the attack Urist hastily dodged away. When he thought he was safe a shadow appeared above causing his danger senses to go off the charts.
Hurriedly he held his spear in both hands to block to see a massive black fist descended upon him. By some form of luck, he managed to block the fist but not the force caused his spear to bend slightly and caused his hands to grow numb. He braced himself only to be blown away by the impact and sent flying straight into the ground causing him to cough.
Feeling the air left his lungs, Urist felt bewildered in how something that was once so small could be so powerful. Only he didn’t have long to think as he saw a foot descend upon him intent on crushing him to paste.
Elbowing the ground, he used the counterforce to push himself out of the way in time. A foot came crashing down causing the ground to crack and the force of the blow pushed him away by two meters. Digging his spear into the ground Urist forced himself to land crouched. Watching the dust clear the massive Rat King stood with a wolfish grin.
Jumping out of the crater, the Rat King moved swiftly leaving no time for Urist to move out of the way. He felt the cool blade of death on his neck, as an axe kick descended directly for his head. Gritting his teeth Urist raised his spear to block the attack. His legs were forced to dig into the ground as he felt the bones in him arm creak and groan under the pressure.
Although he was able to stop the kick from bashing his skull in he couldn’t stop the followup kick to his side the blasted him into the side of the mountain. Coughing up blood on impact, Urist was dazed from the pain, struggling out of the rock face he landed on the ground face first.
Eyes unfocused how a few dwarfs having been singled out by gorilla rats fighting as hard as they could. They were surrounded trying their best to live, but one heavily wounded dwarf already was too late for him.
He grabbed his chest as the rat gorillas descended upon him. At that moment he caught sight of Urist and smiled before roaring to the heavens. “FOR THE GLORY OF DARVEN KIND!”
A click was heard and then an explosion rang out as the dwarf exploded taking out a dozen or so gorilla rats. The dwarfs seeing such bravery and too weak to keep fighting laughed aloud and they motioned to their chest.
Weakly Urist tried to word out to stop them only for their shouts ring through the battlefield.
“““““““““FOR THE GLORY OF DWARVEN KIND.”””””””””
Nine shouts rang out from the battlefield, followed by nine explosions.
Urist felt numb to the pain at that point as he tried to force himself off from the ground only to throw up more blood.
Move. Move you piece of shit body. Move for I must avenge my brethren. Move.
His body felt cold as he tried to get up only managing to fall again on the bloody ground. The Rat King watched Urist pitiable with amusement for a few moments before his eyes grew cold and began slowly walking towards Urist. With unfocused eyes, Urist dug his hands into the ground feeling the fire within him dim. Then when the Rat King was only ten meters away from Urist, a figure appeared between the two. Eyes focused now Urist eyes widen as from the depth of his soul came shock, anger, and fear. A moment of the past of a girl that had flaming red hair with her back towards him.
Remember. No matter what happens. I love you.
“Don’t… Run… I COMMAND YOU TO RUN AWAY!”
“I cannot accept that request, Dummy. You cannot fall here,” Looking over her shoulder Uria gave Urist the brightest smile she had ever given. Berserk potion in hand she put the bottle to her lips and drank before rushing at the waiting Rat King.
Time seemed to slow as Urist watched on, No, not again, not like this. I won’t let her die again. Move your piece of shit body. The pain is nothing, let me move again. Just. MOVE.
And so battered and broken, Urist clenched his teeth and pushed off the ground with a primal roar to get on his feet. Bracing himself against his spear Urist’s legs felt like wet paper as he got on his feet. Just in time to see Uria eyes get torn out by the Rat King and get kicked to the side.
Something cracked inside Urist as he watched her body fly away. His mind consumed in utter rage as his shaky hand reached into his back pouch and pulled out another berserk potion.
"FOR THE GLORY OF DWARVEN KIND!"
He popped the top and drank its contents going into a double berserker rage.
His muscles doubled in size, his hair turned white, and the whites in his eyes turned scarlet red.
As if he had become a demon.
He walked slowly towards the Rat King who was currently laughing his heart out at the pitiful state his enemy was in.
This is what he feared for all those days? This was the one who took his eye? How disgraceful.
Were the thoughts the Rat King mused as he gave a glance over his army. Although most of his underlings had died it had been worth it. with the civilization crystals, he could birth more and raise an even bigger army and talk over this world. All he had to kill was this puny insect and all was his. It was time to play with his food.
The two leaders moved against each other. The Rat King laughed and charged at the weakened dwarf. Just one more kick and then he’d kicked the bucket thought the Rat king.
Urist pushed his body to the limits and closed in with unrelenting speed. Wielding his spear Urist bet it all with this one strike the strike Mo had taught him.
Gather the flames along with the spear, close in, and twist your body for full power. And so Urist stepped into the striking stone. With unrelenting speed, he twisted his body from his feet to the legs, to the waist, the shoulder, the arm, and finally explode outwards with the wrist.
In a flash, he moved through the motions and stuck out with move First Strike.
Seeing the strike coming at him the Rat King laughed his head off. This was his foes last attack? An all-out frontal assault? Against the great him? The Rat King stopped and shook his head, he decided to take the strike head-on to make his enemy disappear further before he ripped his guts out and feasted upon them.
Cladding his fist in shadows he let out a punch towards the spearhead head intent on breaking it. Unfortunately, he underestimated the power of two-fold berserk and such thoughts would become his downfall. Like a dragon, Urists spear coated in origin flames slipped through his shadows like butter. The Rat King noticing this tried to move away. And at that moment a gorilla rat flew out and smashed into him from behind. The force allowed the spear to enter right into the Rat Kings hand, though his arm and into his brain before exiting his skull.
With a roar full of fury Urist activated his flames, “Burn to ash to bastard!”
Jets of orange flames then exploded out of the Rat King's eyes and mouth.
Part 4 - Living at a Cost
Urist’s broken body fell on the spot.
That one attack had caused all his reserves to be spent leaving him unable to move. Around him, the rats seemed to ‘wake up'.
Without a leader to lead them, they scurried away, leaving the dwarfs confused before roaring for victory. Seeing the remaining rats retreat at this time the healers and noncombatants moved out of the cave.
But Urist felt too tired to care about winning or losing. At the moment he wanted to see if Uria was alive. Inch by inch he began to dig his hands into the ground tying his best to crawl to where Uria had collapsed. He kept muttering her name as he moved in agony.
The first to notice them was Ubel and Vlad who yelled at the healer Adster to come over and heal him immediately to which he replied.
“Save her first or I won’t forgive you.”
They looked at Uria shallow breathing then back to Urist who showed signs of weakening. With a curse under his breath, Vlad went over to the Rat King and stabbed into his chest to pull out the rats amazingly still-beating heart.
A torn look flashed over his eyes before resolving his inner clash> He ran over to Urist with heart in hand. Pushing away the healer and Vlad hung over Urist.
“The healer won’t save him in this condition. He needs life energy since he expended so much in this fight. Go, heal the lass while she still draws breath I’ll handle him.”
A frosty expression covered Ubel's dead-eyed gaze, “He better not die blood mage or I’ll have your head.”
With a chuckle, Vlad bent down and lifted Urist head to his lap, “Well I was planning on eating this heart for myself and face the danger. But seeing as your fading away it wouldn’t be right of me to take that chance after you gave me a meaning to live.
“Boss are you ready to walk the true path of kings? Once you walk this path you will be walking the path made from corpses of friends, family, and enemies. Do you accept the blood oath boss? No, my King.”
Urist opened his eyes weakly, “Is she alive?”
Vlad turned around and yelled, “Is she alive?”
“Yeah, she’ll make it.”
“Well you heard will you accept?”
“Just feed me the fucking heart before I pass the fuck out and die.”
Without a second sooner, Vlad shoved the massive heart the size of Urist head into his mouth. The instant the blood and flesh enter Urist mouth an all-consuming hunger pushed the pain away. With surprising strength, Urist lifted his heavy arms and began to feast.
Each bite bringing agonizing pain to shoot through his body as his veins started to pop up along the skin. But the hunger, oh the hunger kept him biting chunk after chunk out of the heart filled with blood to wash it down.
Urist wanted to scream bite after bite, drink after drink as it caused his muscles and bones to break down and reform. Along with that, his blood began to boil through his skin and hair began to grow from his chin into a thick and lush scarlet beard.
Vlad watched on as his king changed in front of his eyes in envy only to shake his head. No, I mustn't regret. Although he is inexperienced I am sure that he will do a better job in leading us.
After he finished up the heart Urist body went still for a moment, before it began to thrash and turn. Then a beastal scream of pain howled out as pain wreaked havoc throughout his body. Seeing this Vlad hurriedly called for help to hold Urist down and gag his mouth in case if bit his tongue off.
It took a bit for the medical workers to make Uria stable. When she was able Ubel had the healers go off and spread pain and life. He then returned later to Vlad’s side who was checking Urist vitals.
Ubel narrowed his eyes and turned to blood mage, “What did you do to him? Is he going to die?”
Finish tying up the gag Vlad gave a chuckle and sat back, “I think he’s too stubborn to die. No, what I did was give him a king bloodline.”
“Will he still be himself or a mutated monster.”
And with that Vlad shrugged his shoulders, “It’s all theory at this point. I never got a chance to study a kings bloodline being transferred. I know he’ll be alive and he should be fine in mind. As for the legends about the body? Well, they always seemed to leave that out.”
And so as Urist body twitched in his unconscious state. The dwarfs able to move those unable to were moved into the cave. The healers and light mages worked around the clock to save those that were injured finding themselves unable to save a dozen commoners and a few warriors.
Ubel felt it was unexpected that so many had lived. From his calculations, he felt certain more than half their number would have been dead from facing such a swarm. He didn’t dwell on the acceptable loses anymore and took command. He first ordered after the injured were placed inside to begin to clean up and had Uria’s second in command Briana store them so they didn’t rot.
The earth mages who had been held in reserve began to fix up the wall that had been broken. Ubel spent some points to summon ten commoners on his tight budget. He then ordered them to start hauling the corpses with the larger one taking precedence. That set the tone for the rest of the day, with corpses hauled, dwarf licking wounds, and for those who were weakened food was shoved down their throats.
Thankfully with the baskets they had at hand, it made the job of hauling corpses less stressful. By the end of the night, the small able group had managed to move over ten thousand corpses With the rest being covered in water then ice to preserve them for tomorrow's moving.
With a sigh, Ubel looked into his glass filled with wine. He wondered to himself then looked at the two sleeping troublemakers Uria and the fool. Uria had been in critical condition and lost her eyes. Although healing magic is amazing it wasn’t at the level of growing body parts from exploded gore.
And despite his body not shaking anymore, Urist was diagnosed to be in a coma without knowing how long he’d wake. He was told it might be five minutes from now or take longer than a week. If it was the old him in such a position he’d slit their throats, gain command, and be done with it. He had done it a few times when higher ranking generals were incompetent and he didn’t want to die.
Now his temptation was just fond memories of the past he wasn’t fit to lead. He had learned the hard way that it wasn’t worth it. Taking his victory glass of wine he exited the cave and toasted to the two moons wishing for a better tomorrow.
After All, they had earned it, right?
