So the begins

They were attempting to make use of surprise-no torches lighting their way as they come through a smaller side door instead of the main gates. Of course, they weren't the only ones-the camp pretending to be an unassuming target while readying. All of this didn't matter to my eyes in the sky-or, really, any of those who I lead that would actually be doing the fighting. After all, they'd spent the better part of a couple weeks largely living in a roughly claw-hewn cave. By comparison, the starlit soon-to-be battlefield was brightly lit. Those harpies were simply the ones it was most pertinent for-a small group that was the start of a chain of messengers to inform the rest of us when it would be time

For my part, I was leading the counterattack, going to be the first one to burst out . As my fleshy mass plugged the entirety of the main tunnel, the name of my species seemed far more literal than it normally was-a solid wall of living flesh blocking the way. Anticipation added onto my normal accelerated thoughts-every moment seemed to crawl by. Too late to make any real drastic changes, all I had to do was hope the preparations I'd made had been enough. It was like sitting while tests were being handed out-a culmination of if you'd studied the right things. Only for me right now, the expression 'do or die' was a bit less a metaphor than normal.

The message system turned out to be not horribly necessary. The clash of a melee could be heard-practically felt even-through the ground, rattling with the of shields being hit, whether by other shields, or by whatever weapons they could arm themselves with. As I heard it, I pushed forward, the last few inches of stone and dirt bursting under my mass and strength-leaving me free to come out and open the floodgate for my spawn right behind me. Moments later, side passages had done likewise allowing more to pour out.

Whereupon I had an irritatingly familiar feeling-that of bolts ripping into me. Save that these ones felt a lot bigger than the relative sticks I had to deal with before. As far as I could tell, they came from right above me-probably some siege engine stationed on the wall. A ballista, firing almost blindly into the commotion. And hitting me mostly from being a large target-not quite the broad side of a barn, but getting there. I fired up Rootborn Defence to help turtle up for the moment , just glad that it was hitting me instead of my troops that would go splat in a more lethal way.

I'd just gained my third level in that skill when it ceased being needed-as the men once operating them were thrown off of the wall, only to be quickly torn apart by the gathering of monsters at the based of the wall. The egregor's teleportation and harpy's flight both meant that the height of the wall proved little obstacles from them-and it was just a short fall to their doom as more and more filed out from our spots underneath the ground.