Battle of Alman Plains

Grom POV:

The day of the battle came quickly. Grom takes a look to the sky above him, a sight that still filled him with wonder and a small degree of terror. Would the gods forgive him if he died beyond the stone? No, he couldn't think like that, not now. He is positioned on a small hill where he could see the entire assembled army. The core was made up of heavily armored dwarven infantry. Shields at the front in an impenetrable wall, behind them, halberds provided reach to kill the orcs as they try to breach their tight formation. To the flanks are his gunners. He prays that these goblin inventions will actually hit enough orcs to justify. He'd rather use crossbows but the men had trained for this and with luck they will shatter the morale of the orcs.

Supporting these were an assembled **** of humans and hobbits. The humans stood beside the dwarven core. They also relied on formations but theirs were looser and their armor lighter but they had all recieved buffs from their mages, an act that fascinated Grom. He'd heard of human war mages and how they could turn the tide of any battle. There were three here and the partially trained Julia Valerius. Besides Julia who was **** to stay in camp, the mages were each in the center of a cohort. Only a third of the 16th legion had arrived in time but Grom could tell they were a **** that worked together well. The hobbits form most of the ranged units as well as some chariot units. Aine, Lucius and Octavius each lead their own troops. They were less impressive than the career legionaires but they were well equipped and were locals to the area.

Across the plain, Grom sees the mass of green and grey flesh, chanting and shouting. The stark contrast to the silence of his side of the field makes him smirk. Marcus had left him in command of a well disciplined ****, many of whom are fighting for their home against a barbarous invasion. He is confident. He nods to the horn blower as the orcs start to move. He gives one blow. The men immediately tense in their formations, preparing themselves. A second nod and the two cannons, large versions of the goblin "boom-rods" flashed, launching heavy balls towards the orcs. Grom smirks as he sees a line of orcs destroyed, those around them hesitating at the brutality of the weapon. Two more shots are fired by time the orcs crash against his men.

He finally sees orcs for the first time. They are huge, at least 7 feet tall, twice as wide as a human and extremely muscular.

He orders the ranged units to fire as the orcs come in range. The guns fill the air with smoke and a number of orcs collapse. The hobbits loose bolts from their crossbows and while more hit, they are less damaging to the orcs. They do seem to weaken them a little at least. No matter how startled the orcs are by the weaponry used against them, they continue their charge. Finally the orcs crashed like a wave against his army.

Their lack of armor meant they were taking wounds fast, red streaks crossed the bodies of their front line. No matter how much they were struck, they continued to fight. Grom watched as one lost an arm and simply used it as a weapon with his other hand. He is simultaneously impressed and horrified by the horde. He nods, the horn blows three times and the hobbit charriots rode around. The charriots were horribly efficient designs. Each had a large blade from the wheels that swept through the orcs like a scythe through wheat. As they rode, a pair of hobbits fired arrows at the orcs who dared challenge them. Of course, as soon as the horses died, the hobbits had to run quickly or they'd quickly become overrun.

While his own men had no such tactic, the trained legionaires had a method of maintaining the freshness of the front line. Four blasts of the horn and he watches as the legion cohorts shift, the front troops pull back and those behind take their place in a well organised method that at only for the briefest moment leaves the shield wall weak. He'd see if he can implement that in his own men when he gets the chance, he thinks. Any wounded are extracted out the back for medics to care for. The truely **** are healed with magic but if not needed the mages demonstrate their devastating capabilities. They throw fireballs and lightning at the orcs constantly. Each attack killed an orc. They also placed hexes on the orcs that weakened them although the orcs seemed to shake this off effortlessly.

Despite the efficiency of his army, they were being pushed back. It took too much effort to kill one orc and there were simply too many of them. When they couldn't get past the shield wall they used their impressive size and strength to grab the shield and pull the dwarves out of the line and deep into their own mass. Blood was being shed at a devastating rate and it was unclear who would win. Whatever Marcus was planning he had to succeed soon.

Marcus POV:

The sounds of battle carried across the plains. The loud screaming and shouting of the orcs and the clashing of metal rang out breaking the beauty of the serene landscape of the lush green plain.

Marcus, Amelia and a **** of twenty hobbit sharpshooters creep along in a tall patch of grass, circling wide around the orc army keeping an eye out for their leadership. Finally they saw her. An orc woman, tall and powerful stood surrounded by a few guards and an ogre. She is watching the battle with an unreadable expression. Unlike most of the orcs, she is wearing armor. It is crude iron armor but it makes her significantly more threatening.

"Alright, we'll get as close as we can in the grass." Marcus whispers. "From there, you all try to take out the guards. Leave the ogre and Ghorza, your arrows won't pierce the ogre's hide or her helmet. Me and Amelia will take care of those."

"I don't know whats worse, the armored orc or the ogre..." Amelia says with a small laugh. "Let's go fuck them up. I've got your back, Marcus."

"Got it, Legate." The sharpshooters confirm.

"Alright then, lets go. Gods be with us." Marcus says with a nod. They quickly make their way to the edge of the grass. A quick volley of arrows and the guards collapse with two arrows in each of their heads. Marcus and Amelia emerge from the grass and run to cover the distance before any more orcs notice what is happening and intefere.

The ogre roars and rushes forward. The ogres are very different from orcs and only rarely interacted with them in any positive way. They are roughly 9 feet tall, muscular but are also gluttonous so are often obese. They are intelligent but very isolationist and solitary so never built a civilization. This one, however, had aligned itself with the orcs and needed to be put down. It covers the distance between them and swings its heavy club. It was a slow and cumbersome swing so Marcus was easily able to dodge it and Amelia, being so short, wasn't in any threat.

"Griffon plan?" I say to Amelia.

"Griffon plan." She agrees.

It's a plan they had come up with on the fly when they had to fight a griffon. Marcus throws two fireballs at the ogre's face to distract it. Meanwhile Amelia rushes forward and gets under its feet. She jumps and Marcus helps her by causing her to levitate. She quickly climbs up until she is standing on the ogre's shoulders. Marcus gets close and thrusts his sword into the ogre's calves, causing it to stumble and focus on him, seeing him as the immediate threat. With a quick step back to avoid the ogre's swing. Marcus channels a dangerous amount of magic into a strength buff for Amelia. The spell left him weakened but, if Amelia does her job, he shouldn't be in danger. She uses her new strength to drive her daggers into the temples of the ogre. It instantly loses control of its body and stumbles forward.

As it collapses, Amelia is thrown from it's shoulders, luckily towards Marcus. He catches her in his arms. "Good work, short stuff." He says a little weakly. He quickly drinks a mana potion to prepare to confront Ghorza.

"Gods, how weak do you think I am?" Amelia teases. "You overdid the buff last time too. An ant could've killed him with that buff."

"Oh stop exagerating." Marcus says with a smirk. "I just wanted to make sure you did your job so I didn't end up as a red smear on the ground."

"Yeah well, you still might weakening yourself like that. We've still got an armored orc to take down."

"That's what I've got you for." He says with a wink and puts her back on the ground. "You won't let your old pal die will you."

"I'm considering it." She laughs.

Ahead Ghorza stands ready to face them. The hobbit sharpshooters deal with any orcs who might've noticed and try to save their leader. They take a breath and start jogging towards the orc leader.

This will end today.