CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE: GRAPES OF WRATH

Gabriel could hear the sounds of soil being disturbed, as Demons all over the grapevines emerged out of the ground. Shouts from the Squad Captains and Sergeants yelling could be heard across the din, as they tried to bring order back to the now panicking soldiers. Gabriel looked back at his own squad and didn’t see much panic, surprise yes, but not fear or panic. A smile appeared on Gabriel’s face, ‘These guys have the appearance closer to experienced soldiers, then the greenhorns they are.’ Gabriel thought. He turned his sight back to the oncoming enemies and used [Inspect] on one of the demons.

[Withered Husk Demon – LVL 13]

HP – 1250/1250

RP – 250/250

Additional information: [Withered Husk Demons] are creature born from the bodies of tortured Elves. They retain the tall and skinny stature of there once original body, but have elongated and stretchy limbs that hold retractable claws at the end of them. There emaciated bodies offer little in the way of protection but they make up for their low defence with their high agility.

“What the hell is going on back there!?” Sergeant Titus roared from his position near the head of the column.

The sudden roar caught some of the panicking soldiers' attention, causing them to fall into even worse state of disarray. As some of them paused and stop listening to their captains' orders. Sergeant Titus’s attention had now also become divided and the half-made Phalanx that he was getting the front column arranged into, started to splinter, as soldiers looked behind them at the source of the sudden commotion. Sergeant Titus caught on quickly and turned back hollering at the men to arrange tighter and lift their shields but the damage had already been done. Accompanied by a chorus of raspy cackles, the [Curse Witches] in front of the village entrance launched their spells. The soldiers that were a part of the shoddy made phalanx, all raised their shields in fear but after a moment of waiting nobody felt or saw the splash of the spells launched by the Witches.

“Oh no...” One soldier muttered, as he peeked over the top of his shield.

A purple trail, like the tail of comet could be seen going over the top of their heads. As if they were artillery cannons, the Witches threw their spells in an arc. They went over the top of the heads of the column at the front and curved back down towards the completely exposed soldiers at the back. Gabriel had noticed all of this happen, while keeping an eye on the demons coming out of the ground and beginning to charge at him. Gabriel took a few steps back, not in fear but because he knew that he needed to do something far more important than just attack the demons singlehandedly. He was not an army onto himself, not yet at the least.

Gabrel positioned himself as quick as he could behind his squad and close to the middle of the column. Looking around himself, Gabriel took in everything happening in a split second. The charging demons had only appeared on two sides. The front and back were clear of enemies but his column of close to 250 soldiers were still obstructed. In front was the Vanguard and behind was the supplies, ballistae and small number of Imperium Mages. The Mages were already shooting off spells to the small number of Demons charging their position. The bulk of the hidden army were heading towards Gabriel’s direction. Gathering his breath, Gabriel stood erect like a spear and to the closely watching members of the Legion, the easy going and smiling persona Gabriel had previously given off, was gone. In its place, was what felt like to the soldiers of the training camps, a powerful, battle-hardened veteran, who's very being appear to be thirsting for battle and blood.

“Attention!! Every soldier here my command and obey!! Assume the Testudo formation, leave no gaps. I want you four to take your soldiers and hold the right and you three take the left. Rolo!?” Gabriel ordered, his voice carrying through and over the chaotic mix of snarls, panicked yells and the pounding of the ground from the charging demons.

Rolo turned to the man he called “Chief” and froze. The look of Gabriel as he stood there, his back straight, shoulders square, armor shining in the sun, while the runes that covered the metal appeared to glitter a light bright blue and his soft red feathered cape billowed in the breeze, was nothing but awe inspiring to Rolo. The large Northmen grew up in the harsh northern lands of Valhalla, where the strength and valor of a warrior was cherished above any other quality. The look of Gabriel standing like a sturdy oak prepared to meet a cyclone, his face attained the confidence of someone who also expected the cyclone to be the one that topples, left a deep impression on the Northmen warrior. Rolo’s heart started to beat faster, as his inner warrior appeared to sing along with the same song of battle Gabriel appeared to be emitting.

“Rolo! Stop gawking you lumbering fool and get in formation. I want you, Richard and Grendel to make a break for the trees to swing back around on my signal. Make sure to let your fellow squad members know so they can close the gap once you leave. Be prepared!” Gabriel ordered, snapping the Northman out of the fervent staring match he appeared to have gotten himself into.

The surrounding soldiers who were in a mixed state of frozen in shock, to moving in fear, appeared to have woken up from the commanding tone. The soldiers moved like an automated machine in motion, as the Legionnaire camp's previous training had finally kicked in. The squad captains Gabriel had pointed out, began to order their men according to Gabriel's suggestion. They made their men line up in two rows, the ones in front held their shields together, so close they looked to become one giant shield. The second row raised their rectangular shields over their heads, covering themselves and the row in front. Not a moment later the spell barrage landed upon, the shields, in the mix of the spells were a number of offensive and de-buff curses. Due to the majority of the spells being blocked by the enchanted and well-crafted shields of the Imperium. A lot of the damage had been nullified. Some soldiers who didn’t get into the formation in time were quickly blasted to death. There were also a few Soldiers under the shields, who were unlucky enough to be hit by a spell that slipped through the defensive formation. They screamed in pure agony, the curses and offensive spells from the Witches were all a form of corruption, and as majority of the Imperium soldiers were human, they didn’t have any natural magical resistance like the Dark elves or Dwarves, it made even the littlest of nick on bare skin, from a spell/curse, feel as if you were dipped in a pool of acid.

One unfortunate soldier was hit by a curse of the vilest intent. A ghastly ball of purple and green flames slammed into the right side of his face. Within seconds it made his skin appear like candle wax, as it began to drip off in blobs. The Soldier dropped to his knees, screaming in heart wailing pain, the surrounding soldiers paled at the sight and froze in fear as they took their eyes off the corpse like Demons in front and put eyes to the sky. The nerve shattering screams of the soldier was suddenly cut off. The soldier's companions looked back to their fallen friend; from the sudden lack of noise, they thought the worst but what appeared was a stalwart Gabriel standing over the top of him. His eyes fiercely staring at the suddenly paused soldiers.

“Back in line! Support the shield wall and focus on the battle!” Gabriel roared, while he sheathed his throwing axe that he used the handle of, to knock out the screaming soldier.

Once the soldiers resumed their shield wall and tightened up after a few more orders and corrections from Gabriel. He nodded in satisfaction, releasing some of the pressure he was exuding on the backs of the soldiers. Gabriel took out a [Medium Health Potion] and poured it on the down soldier's face, the acid spell had sat on the skin long enough, that it ate through to the cheekbone. Stuffing the rest of the potion down the soldier’s mouth, Gabriel surveyed the battle. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. The Imperium soldiers were having trouble making any headway, reaching a sort of stalemate, as Gabriel went through his current options. Due to the constant barrage of spells, Gabriel couldn’t order a javelin volley in fear of incurring to many causalities. Sergeant Titus had noticed the display and realised the second column’s plight in an instance. He needed to get rid of the Witches in front, so the soldiers behind can make a proper offence against the ambushing Demons.

“Charge!! Cut down those heathen bitches!!” Sergeant Titus roared, as the phalanx began to charge at the cluster of Witches.

Boom!! Before they made it halfway, Sergeant Titus soldiers were met with another underground sneak attack of demons. These were fewer in number then the ones behind but they were unfortunately of the large [Greater Demon] type Gabriel had previously faced on Eagle Peak. The two sides entered a fierce melee with the now completely enraged Dwarven Sergeant swinging his warhammer around, smashing a demon’s bone to pieces with every strike. Gabriel saw that the charge had been halted and looked back to where the ballista was, looking among the crowd of artillery soldiers cowering behind the Mages and shooting their bows. Gabriel spotted the man he was looking for, as he raised a thing javelin and managed to pierce a Demon through the forehead.

“[Maximus]!” Gabriel roared, catching the roman-history fanatic player’s attention.

During the time Gabriel was looking for [Maximus], the soldiers of the right and left in the testudo formation finally felt the strong impact of the withered, corpse like demons. As they slammed into the shields, they hacked out with an assortment of weapons and claws at the Imperium soldiers.

“Hold!!” Gabriel ordered, before looking back in the stationary ballista's direction.

[Maximus] peered over in Gabriel’s directing after hearing his name and saw Gabriel in all his glory. With a khopesh raised Gabriel pointed at the ballista and then at the cluster of artillery bombing [Curse Witches]. [Maximus] who had been watching the majority of the battle with a fan boy type wonder on his face, suddenly nodded hard and pulled the sniveling artillery crew from beneath their hiding places; under the supply carriages. Gabriel smiled at seeing the now worked up and excited [Maximus] as he moved and shoved his squad members into motion.

Gabriel appeared as if he had eyes on the top of his head, with small steps to the side he dodged all spells heading towards his area with barely any movement. Noticing that majority of the previously hidden demons were now clumped together in front of the soldiers, he began to countdown in his head. The Imperium soldiers were quite lucky, in the sense that the current demons they were facing were some of the [Lesser Demons] usually used as cannon fodder. They were weak by themselves being only [LVL 13], with weak strength but decent agility, they could however, be devastating in larger numbers, especially in surprise attacks or night raids. As their longer limbs allowed them to get past quickly made shield walls, they could inflict multiple wounds on their enemies that began to add up quickly. Once Gabriel finished the countdown in his head, he joined his squad of soldiers and bellowed a new set of orders.

“Ready!! As one.... Push!” Gabriel roared, making sure his voice carried to the other side of the road as well.

The soldiers in the front row slammed their shield forwards with all their strength, the soldiers behind also lent their weight by bracing the backs of the front rows, ultimately making the skinny and frail withered demons stumble back into each other. In Rolo and Grendel’s case, the demons were knocked back hard enough to take them off their feet and into the demons behind. The front row of soldiers lifted their shields with one hand above their heads and with the other slashed out with their swords. The Soldiers in the second row put their shields down and stepped under the front row’s shields, adding their blades into the mix with quick stabs, inflicting a lot of damage. The barrage of spells never stopped dropping towards them and even felt like they came down heavier once the soldiers launched their first counter-attack. Gabriel without a shield, used the cover of his squads shield to unleash a barrage of slashes with his khopesh, while slamming his axe down on one Demons head. He then used an over hand toss, sending his axe flying through the air, before it slammed into one of the Demons at the back, that was previously knocked flying by Rolo.

“Re-form!! Brace!!” Gabriel roared, as he took a step back himself out of the two row of soldiers and back into the middle of the road.

Gabriel gazed around and took stock of the current situation. Sergeant Titus was making slow but steady progress through the [Greater Demons], unfortunately every couple of feet they made, another set of demons would emerge from the ground or be resummoned by the [Demonologists] standing among the [Curse Witches]. The soldiers on the opposite side of the road had appeared to have done some significant damage to the ambushing demons but had suffered more casualties than Gabriel's side.

After two more rounds of pushing and counter-attacking the numbers of demons had halved but the barrage spells had not lessened and Gabriel could see the injuries of the Imperium soldiers starting to pile up. As the men had no chance to pull out a healing potion or bandage wounds, they began to be pushed back. Gabriel had lessened the casualties on both sides as much as he could, as he entered the fray to deflect an attack of a demon or move a soldier out of the spot where a falling spell would have landed. ‘Well, it’s been more than enough time to make a move, I rekon.’ Gabriel thought.

“Rolo, Richard, Grendel! Prepare!” Gabriel bellowed, the three didn't turn back but he knew they heard him, as they appeared to tense up like coiled springs.

With hand extended and palm open, Gabriel used [Recall]. The axe that was still embedded in the thin and dried up corpse previously thrown to the back of the demon army by Rolo, was lifted up from the ground by the power of [Recall] and hurtled into the back of the attacking demon army, sending many of them stumbling and turning back in confusion.

“Rolo! Give me a lift!” Gabriel roared, as he sprinted forwards.

Rolo turned around and crouched down with shield held at an angle. Gabriel’s foot landed on the large door like shield, as he bent his knees and prepared himself, as Rolo used all his strength to lift the shield in time with Gabriel’s jump. With the shield acting as a springboard, Gabriel sprung up and over the Imperium soldiers and into the back row of Demons. Activating [Sun Flare] mid-flight, Gabriel appeared like a falling meteorite. With both feet landing squarely on the head of a demon and pushing it straight back into the earth, half burying it beneath the soft soil of the vineyard.

“Back to once you came, you ugly fuckers!”’ Gabriel shouted, as his wall of flames shot out around him, burning the surrounding demons.

Ear tearing shrieks of pain came pouring out of the elongated mouths of the demons, as the closest ones to Gabriel threw themselves onto the ground, quickly burning to cinders. In the midst of the suddenly bright flare from Gabriel’s spell and eye-catching descent from above. Most of the Imperium soldiers and the demons hadn’t noticed the three soldiers sprinting past the clashing armies and to the other end of the vineyard before disappearing behind the rows of vines as they turned to the right.

Gabriel used the gap he had made to quickly reenter the shield wall of his troops. Relying on his honed instincts and past experiences had gotten Gabriel through a lot of tough fights, as well as against opponents far above his level, but he wasn’t arrogant enough to stand in the midst of over a hundred demons by himself. Especially not with the limited strength and defence he had at that moment. During that short brawl, all though some of the Demons were sent back due to the flames, a lot of them managed to use their elongated limbs to claw and hack at Gabriel. He was only able to deflect half of them, the others he relied on his armor to take the blow, as he twisted and turned to make sure the attacks landed on the armoured parts.

“Forward step and push!” Gabriel ordered, once he arrived behind his troops again and checked the situation on the other side of the road as well.

The Imperium soldiers lashed out at the demons again, inflicting another bout of heavy damages to the demons. After having some stability restored among the ranks and relying on their training, the greenhorn soldiers started operating at a much higher level. The soldiers who were originally over extending themselves in their attacks and putting themselves in danger to counter-attacks from the demons, started to get a better fell for the flow of a battle between armies. They weren’t suddenly experienced Veterans just because of a short twenty-minute battle but from their original panicked and undisciplined state. Gabriel thought they were heading in the right direction, the ambush caught him by surprise for a moment too. Most of what happed on this quest, Gabriel had no accurate knowledge of, as he thought to himself, ‘If I remember correctly this quest in the past was a huge failure. The few players who were involved didn’t talk about the surprise attack but that’s mainly because everyone was focused on what happened at the end.’

“[Osiris]!! Ready!?”

Gabriel was paying attention to both sides of the road, when he heard the loud shout from [Maximus] at the back. A set of purple eyes seemed to flash, as Gabriel smiled and with his khopesh raised in the sky he pointed in an arc towards the still bombarding Witches. The sound of a ‘twang’ was heard multiple times coming from the ballista at the back. Several soldiers that were a part of the shield wall noticed a shadow of something long and thick fly over their heads. Gabriel followed the long bolts shot out of the Imperium ballista. Compared to the ones used by the Roman empire in Gabriels's world, the bolts used by the Imperium in Deliverance Online were at least ten feet long. The shaft and head were made entirely out of metal and covered with mage enchantments. Accompanied by the sound of a piercing whistle, the six bolts felw through the air before they slammed into the groups of Witches.

With a crash, four of the six bolts managed to impale one of the Witches each. One of the bolts was even lucky enough to impale two Witches before it embedded itself into the ground, sending dust and rocks flying. That wasn’t the end of damage done by the bolts though, in the magically powered world of Valhalla, if all the bolts could do was physical damage, they wouldn’t be too much use. Each bolt, when making impact with the ground let off one of the spells that were imbued into the head. The Imperium made many bolts stored with hundreds of different spells, for all different kinds of situation and enemies. The bolts fired by [Maximus]’s ballista team were all imbued with a AOE fire offensive spell.

A ring of fire expanded rapidly out of the bolts among the startled Witches. The fires spread through the rest of the clustered Witches, making them turn their attention from their spell barrage to the encroaching flames. Being Mana based users, the Witches weren’t overly affected, many of them pulling up their [Mana Shield] to deflect the fire. Besides a few of the Witches who were standing close to the bolts, the cluster of some hundred Witches suffered few losses. Gabriel was still happy though, with the sudden interference from the ballista attack and the AOE flames still not dissipating. The Witches barrage had stopped, easing the pressure on Gabriel and Sergeant Titus forces.

“Listen up! Back row, lower your shields and prepare Javelins!” Gabriel ordered.

Now that they didn’t have to protect from the volley of spells coming from above, it freed up the second line of soldiers greatly. The soldiers in the back row, slammed their shields into the ground, the sharpened bottom allowing the shield to pierce the ground and stay erect unaided. They prepared their javelins and held them in throwing position, as they waited for Gabriel’s command. Gabriel had also used [Summon Javelin] and held his own at the ready.

“Shield Wall! Push and duck!” Gabriel hollered, after waiting for the demons to suitably clumped up on both sides.

The shield wall on both sides gave the hardest push they could, sending the row of demons flying, instead of their usual follow up of blade attacks, this time the front row all crouched down as far as they could. The sound of multiple missiles flying over their heads soon followed, as the back row threw their javelins. One javelin was so close, that the soldier in front felt it trim some hair off the top of his brush helmet. The [Withered Husk Demons] skin was like tissue paper to the thin and sharp javelins. As they sliced through their dried up bodies within moments. Gabriel also managed to throw out two of his [Summon Javelin] within the time everyone threw one.

“All forces! Attack!” Gabriel roared at the top of his lungs, as he joined his squad in charging into the last of the demons.

Gabriel had been keeping careful watch on the Witches and saw that the fire had just gone out. They were whipping out mana and health potions, to recover before they send out another set of spell barrages onto the soldiers. Gabriel thought that it would have been good to send out another set of Ballista bolts but alas, Sergeant Titus was making quick work of the [Greater Demons] and getting closer to the Witches. There rush to get to the spell-chucking Witches unfortunately led to a lot of heavy injuries among his troops and Gabriel knew the risk of a stray ballista bolt could cause if landed about friendly troops. Gabriel had a plan though, with his earlier shout for “All Forces”, he wasn’t just talking about the ones closest to him.

“Diiiieee! You ugly warts of women!!!”

“Eat my Demon Slaying Fists, you grotty Bitches!”

A roar could be heard coming from the side of the Witches. Gabriel smiled at the sight, as he jumped into the fray before him, determined to mop up the last of the demons from the Vineyards as quick as possible.

After smashing in the face of one of the horned demons with his armoured gauntlets, Sergeant Titus paused momentarily at the sound of the roar, as it appeared to come from just ahead and to the left of him. Three Imperium soldiers, he remembered were apart of Gabriel’s squad, had appeared out of nowhere, with the large Northmen leading the charge, Rolo, accompanied by Grendel and Richard, as they charged into the Witches from the side. Rolo pulled ahead of the others by using his charge skill and immediately activated [Whirlwind] once reaching the cluster of Witches. The unarmored and unprepared Witches were quickly chopped into pieces by the madly swinging axes of Rolo. Grendel arrived next, sending the Witches flying with her violent strength and unleashed brutal strikes with her hammer upon the gaping faces of the women. Richard was right next to her, with smooth and fast slashes of his sword, he left only thin lines of red along the Witches throats before he brushed pass moving onto another. Richard’s face remained stoic the entire time, like he was simply trmming the hedges. After what felt to be a long second passed and under the stunned gaze of Sergent Titus, the thin line left by Richard, that looked no deeper than a scratch, suddenly gushed blood as the Witches toppled back.

Once a couple of the [Demonologists] mixed in with the [Curse Witches] were slain, the Demons fighting Sergeant Brutus began to lose strength as their connection with their summoner had died. Noticing this, Sergeant Titus rallied his battered soldiers and charged the remaining Demons with greater vigor.

Gabriel’s squad had finished off the Demons on their side of the road first and once done, Gabriel ordered them to charge to the other side of the road. When the last of the [Withered Husk Demons] fell, the soldiers all let out a cheer before promptly being silenced with one look from Gabriel. The soldiers hadn’t realized when but during the battle, Gabriel’s position in their hierarchy had risen by a lot, it was close to the deference they showed Sergeant Titus. Majority of the Squad leaders noticed this but couldn’t help subconsciously looking towards Gabriel for leadership themselves.

“This is only the first fight. We still haven’t finished our mission; we haven’t even reached the manor yet. This is not the time for cheering.” Gabriel scolded, as he gazed around at the jumble of soldiers before, he continued. “I want all squad captains to do a head count, retrieve any fallen and make sure anyone injured receives healing.”

The soldiers surrounding Gabriel didn’t shoot him any gazes of anger after the light scolding. Instead, they offered him nothing but looks of thanks and admiration, along with strong nods of acceptance. Especially the Squad Captains, who, at the time of the ambush, where they should have been providing their men with a staunch pillar to lean on, they offered nothing but empty words of calm. The sound of running caught Gabriel’s attention as he was looking over a soldiers wound, he paused and looked back towards the road.

“Chief!” Rolo hollered, as he ran over with Grendel and Richard in tow.

Gazing behind where the trio came from, Gabriel could see Sergeant Titus checking the condition of the surrounding men and heading his way as well, but at a much slower pace.

“Good job guys.” Gabriel praised once they arrived, while trying to give each a slap on the shoulder, when he slapped Rolo a chunk of flesh flew off his pauldron, making him raise his eyebrow at the state of Rolo.

When Gabriel also tried to give Grendel a back slap, she dodged his arm and instead forcefully pulled his now hanging arm into a half-hug state.

“Thanks Captain.” Grendel purred, or at least tried to purr, unfortunately it sounded more like the growl of ferocious wolf, leaving the soldiers in the vicinity slightly pale.

Gabriel quickly extracted himself from the hug and looked around at the soldiers who were gazing every direction but his.

“Ahem... yes, well. You did great, take a moment to rest. Draka! Take a few squad members and do a quick sweep of the upcoming grapevines. Make sure to check to soil.” Gabriel ordered, received a quick salute before the half-elf scout sprinted off.

Although Gabriel felt he might have stepped over line by ordering Draka to do scouting without Sergeant Brutus permission. He felt it was necessary to get a head start, as to quickly push through the vineyard area and head to the village.

“HAHA!! God job lad!! My high praise to Primus Pilus about you was proven spot on. Report to me exactly what happened.” Sergeant Titus inquired with a large grin on his face.

“Yes Sir! I first noticed one of the grape vines...” Gabriel started to recount, after getting a mighty back slap from the muscular dwarf.