Without hesitation, the solider the Spirit Mage had checked-in with at the start raised his horn and let out a long blast. To Niall’s right, the six catapults he had seen previously were hauled out from behind the trees and their cargoes were lit. A sharp shout and their payload flew through the sky. Two of the catapults had their loads fall short, however four hit the wall and the gates. As the flames took hold of the walls and gate unnaturally quickly, Niall realised that the woman had somehow successfully dried out the wood to make it more brittle and flammable.

He did not have time to dwell on this as the Bulvine army had not been standing idle while this happened. Horns blew as soon as the catapults appeared and soldiers erupted from tents all over the camp. Through the smouldering remnants of the walls a division of around a thousand heavily armoured Bulvine emerged carrying tower shields as tall as they were and immense, heavy spears. They had clearly been on standby for an surprise attack like this and they ignored the chaos around and behind them as they marched out and stopped fifty paces outside the camp. The front two rows braced behind their shields and a sharp order that could be heard even from where Niall stood rang out as the front row of Bulvine spear user kneeled behind their interlocked shields. Two rows of spears bristled outwards in even sharp rows that promised death.

Between the Gwillish army and the Bulvine camp a, clearly unnatural, wall of fog started to rise from the ground. Niall glanced over to see the woman in blue leather gritting her teeth in clear discomfort as she stared at the wall of fog with a look of determination on her face.

From the woods to his right, Niall heard the crack of breaking branches. Then there was the slow thunder from the hooves of hundreds of barded horses as the Gwillish heavy cavalry emerged from where they had hidden in the woods. They advanced towards the camp at a steady pace with their lances held upright. To either side of them were the light cavalry, and the divisions of heavy infantry marched in their wake.

A hundred metres out, as one, the knights lowered the lances, still maintaining their walk. Fifty meters out the walk turned into a trot and they burst through the wall of fog that dispersed as they did so. Twenty metres and the trot turned into a gallop. Now, the occasional arrow dropped into their midst, but it had no effect on their advance. Even from the hill where the reserves were positioned, Niall could feel the ground tremble as the knights charged.

To their credit, the Bulvine infantry line maintained their discipline as their doom approached with the line of defending spear heads unwavering. From the undamaged section of the wall ballista bolts launched into the ranks of the knights but, while each took down two of three of the warriors or their steeds, it was an irritation rather than a disaster. The knights closed ranks behind their fallen comrades and continued their charge.

With a smash that echoed across the field the two forces met.

A large number of the knights in the first line of battle fell as they smashed into the ranks of spears. However, their sacrifice was not in vain, as each horse or rider that fell opened a hole in the Bulvine’s defensive line. The knights that followed jumped over their dying brethren and fell amongst the Bulvine troops. From where he was standing, Niall could see the flash of blades, and the sound of men and beasts screaming. Then a horn sounded and the remaining knights turned and galloped away. As they left, they revealed the devastation they had wrought. The bodies of the downed knights and their horses were far outnumbered by the broken and dying remains of the Bulvine.

Having taken the advantage, the Gwillish army was not about to relinquish it. The light cavalry swept past and charged through the shattered remains of the Bulvine defenders into the Bulvine camp. Those few Bulvine that remained were powerless to stop them and they were quickly caught up in a fight for their own lives, as the Gwillish heavy infantry marched forward to ensure there were no survivors amongst the Bulvine division that had defended the entrance.

Niall felt a fierce burst of excitement. He had never been in battle before and, even with his limited understanding, he could see which way this was going. From his vantage point he could see that the advance of the light cavalry had slowed once they were inside the camp. They spilt into smaller groups and charged down the Bulvine as they went, not giving them a chance to organise themselves in any form of organised defence. The wide avenues and the regular open areas of the camp meant the small, manoeuvrable horses were able to wreak havoc. It was clear that as soon as the foot troops joined them, this would be a rout. The walls where the infantry would enter had been all but abandoned, so there was nothing to stop their advance. Victory was near.

The ground beneath Niall’s feet started to tremble again. He looked around to see if he could spot where the Gwillish knights were starting to attack from. He frowned in confusion as he saw them milling around to one side still in the process of forming ranks again. Then the rocky plain in front of camp erupted and everything changed.

From the dust and dirt that filled the air Niall could see an immense figure start to emerge from the ground. Grey and craggy, it was as if it had been hewn out of the very rocks in the earth. It was broadly human in form, if a human had been drawn in crayon by a young child and it towered over the battle field three times the height of a man. Its blockish head with black eyes swivelled on a thick neck as it surveyed its surroundings.

It let out an inhuman, atavistic roar, the noise of the earth ripping apart merged with the sound of a mountain collapsing. Then it rolled its shoulders, bent, and slammed its fists into the earth with a crash that drowned out the sounds of the ongoing battle.

The force of the blow created fissures in the earth where it hit and the shock wave knocked a few men and horses to the ground. Even on the hillside where Niall stood with his patrol the ground moved and he would have stumbled were it not for the spear he had planted in the earth.

However, it was soon clear that the initial shockwave was not the primary purpose of the stone creature’s actions. It stayed bent over with its fists on the ground. As it did so, the fissures splintered outwards like cracks on a plate, widening and deepening as they raced outwards. The first troops to encounter them were the Gwillish heavy infantry who had finished their clean up and had turned from their advance into the city to face the new threat. They tried to move out of its path but the burden of their bulky armour weighed them down and the cracks quickly caught up with them.

From where Niall stood, it appeared as if the earth simply swallowed the soldiers up as the cracks reached them. Some managed to scramble out of their path but, from the cries and groans, it was clear that many of those who were caught would be out of the fight.

The next to be hit were the heavy cavalry who had been regrouping ready for another charge. At the sight of the approaching cracks, an order was snapped out and the cavalry turned and started to gallop away. The command was too late for many though and around half of the remaining knights and their troops fell into the rapidly widening crevices. The screams of the terrified, injured horses filled the battlefield.

As this happened Niall’s eyes were caught by movement at the rear of the Bulvine camp. He tore himself away from the horror of the injured horses to see a herd of over a hundred Bulvine take to air mounted on beasts Niall had never seen before. The front halves of these animals were of the head, body and wings of an immense eagle, while the back halves were the body, claws and tail of a lion.

The Bulvine riding these creatures were lightly armoured but sported bows that were as tall as they were, with arrows scaled to match. They rode gracefully without using their arms to support themselves, and swirled up over their own camp clustering into groups of five. Then, at some unseen signal, they started to fire down on the Gwillish light cavalry as one. It only took a few rounds before the advance of the cavalry was blunted, but the flying archers did not stop. Volley after volley rained down slicing indiscriminately into people and horses. Some of the cavalry had short bows and attempted to return fire but the flying Bulvine were well out of range and the arrows fell harmlessly to the ground. Their mounts screamed defiance down from their eagle beaks. On occasion, one would dive into the camp and pick up a struggling horse and rider with its claws before releasing them high in the sky to plunge to their death. And, all the while, the sky rained death.

The stone creature eventually stood as its cracks had petered out. It swivelled its immense head then started to thud towards the remnants of the knights. Before it took more than a couple of steps it rocked backwards as two huge arrows, each the size of a man, smashed into its chest and left leg. At the same time, similar arrows flew harmlessly past it. Niall looked over to where the arrows had come from to see the ballista lined up next to the catapults. The stone creature looked down to where the arrows protruded from its body before simply plucking them out and flinging them to one side. The holes that had been made to its body closed up and the creature continued its advance.

Niall looked back at the main battle. The cracks had stopped before they had reached light infantry, but their advance had been slowed as they had to negotiate the new terrain. As they picked their way through, there was a roar from the Bulvine camp. From the shattered entrance, a horde of Bulvine flooded out, all were armed with either swords, war hammers or axes. At first glance, Niall thought it was just an undisciplined rabble. However, he soon realised they were organised into groups of about ten that worked in harmony with each other.

Niall looked on in horror as they fell on the remnants of the heavy infantry. While the Gwillish troops had to pick out a route around cracks that were small enough for them to jump over, none of the cracks posed an issue for any of the Bulvine. Their size and agility meant that they simply leapt over them. Indeed, some of their number jumped down into the cracks, no doubt to finish off any survivors down there.

A messenger approaching the reserves brought Niall back to his own situation. He watched as Major Lukan listened and gave a short reply to the messenger who sped off. The Major briefly spoke to the officers around him who listened intently before saluting and marching briskly back to their troops.

Niall watched as Lieutenant Bligh returned and faced her Militia.

“3rd Militia Regiment. With the enemy deploying a Stone Golem and a squadron of griffin riders, we are needed to shore up the left flank. Our orders are to keep the Bulvine infantry from flanking the entire army and to create a channel to allow the light cavalry to disengage and regroup. Wait to move on my signal. This is what we have been training for. Good luck.”