I followed Tortho to the vantage point he had chosen and my harpy escort followed me. I was a little worried as the way he approached me did not exactly bode well. As we reached the spot, with several more rangers securing the perimeter, I quickly realized that the situation was not as bad as I had expected. No, it was, if anything, worse. It took all the self control I could muster not to groan or curse out loud as I beheld the sight of what lay ahead of us. That would have been bad for morale.

Out there, in the plains beyond the hills lay the city we were heading for. Or rather, there lay what had once been a prosperous city. It had quite obviously taken a turn for the worse and not all of what I could see was recent. There were the wyvern nests that dominated the once marvelous castle at the city's center for one. Those had not sprung up over night. They certainly explained the dozen or so flying lizards circling in the skies above the place though.

My air cavalry had so far not been able to get a good count since they steered well clear of the place to not draw the attention of the creatures onto them. That had been a good decision. We would need to somehow split them up to take care of them. If they were to come at us all at once it would be a bloody fight. I had no doubt that we would still be victorious but the losses we would probably suffer were not something I wanted to think about.

The wyvern were bad but they were not the worst I could see either. The buildings of the city looked rundown. They had not been taken care of properly. That wasn't much of a surprise though. In hindsight it was obvious that much of the resources of the city, if not the entire kingdom, had to have gone into breeding wyvern for decades at least.

The city's wall itself was not well maintained either. That did not mean that it wasn't a formidable obstacle in our way though. More troublesome still were the extensive trench works that had been dug out all around the city and its walls. What had once probably been rich farmland had turned into a maze of ditches, trenches and earthen walls. A maze that was crawling with ghouls. And more of these cursed things were still streaming towards the city, often in small groups, from all directions except the one from which we were approaching.

Most of these ghouls were miserable creatures. Plenty of them hadn't been what would be considered able bodies in life. Now that they were beyond death many of them were worse off. Most weren't even armed and even among those that were the vast majority carried nothing more complicated than a pointy stick serving as a makeshift spear or pike if it was long enough.

These ghouls were a miserable sight. There had to be thousands of them though as far as I could see and that didn't even account for those most likely still hidden within or in between the rundown houses of the city itself. Damn, this would not be easy. It wouldn't be quick either. I shook my head. “What a mess.”

Tortho chuckled darkly as he rolled a straw from one corner of his mouth to the other. “That is for sure. No matter how this ends, this kingdom is done for. Maybe some of the places we came through earlier, on our way here, can cling on. Some of the remote farmsteads near the pass might pull through. Especially if we lend them a helping hand. But the kingdom as a whole …” He didn't finish, shaking his head instead.

I couldn't disagree. I couldn't undo what had been done to these people either though. “Either way, do you see those earthworks? Is it just me or does it look like that ghoul king is trying to imitate us?” I shook my head in disbelief. “The sensible thing would have been to fix the big trench around the walls and the walls as well. After wards he could have hidden those ghouls milling about in the trenches now in tunnels instead to counter any tunneling on our side. Like this he is only spreading his force thin.”

Tortho nodded in agreement. “Those ghouls aren't terribly fast. Or at least our past experiences suggest they aren't. Unless we have been duped in that regard he won't be able to bring his full force to bear on us. Sure, he can keep them coming at us for hours like this but I doubt he actually has enough sword fodder to tire us out. He should have focused on a proper ambush instead. Those wyvern though, they are really troublesome. If they come at us all at once we'll have to pay a steep price in blood and tears.”

In a way it reminded me of the way we arrived for the battle at the gap. Once again we were facing overwhelming odds, even if the enemy leader didn't seem to make the best use of his forces. Not as far as I could tell anyway. There was always a chance that I was not privy to one piece of the puzzle or another. The reminder of the battle at the gap gave me another idea though. I turned to one of the harpies accompanying me. “Get Tero and Kaele for me please. Get Yath'zur as well. I need them up here. Gash'zur is in command of the marching column for now. Tora and Leumina are to continue screening the rest from any encroaching ghouls.”

Tortho spit out the straw he had been chewing as the harpy I had addressed and the one next to her were off like the wind. “Its almost as if you are about to do something reckless again. Are you, lady Keza?”

I snorted. He knew me pretty well by now. “Lets wait for Kaele, Tero and Yath'zur so they can give us their opinion. That way I don't have to repeat myself. But yes, you could be on to something. Desperate times call for desperate measures after all. At times it is better to do something reckless rather than nothing at all.”

He grinned and stuck a new straw into the corner of his mouth. “Well, it seems to have worked for you so far. Lets hope that is not about to change today.”

We spent the rest of the wait in silence until the harpies returned with the people I had requested to join us in tow. Yath'zur seemed a little out of breath. Hill climbing was probably not among the activities his healers would have approved of. It couldn't be helped though. I nodded in the directions of our target and gave them a moment to catch their breath and take in the view. “We are in a bit of a tight spot. We can either face them head on and slog this out as we cut our way through wave after wave of ghouls … or we can do something that our master of scouts rightfully expects to be reckless and dangerous.”

Kaele was the first to speak up. “You are planning to work some big magic again, aren't you?” She frowned as she took in the lay of the land. “Something like the storm you had me create at the gap. Except I don't think we can create a storm like that here. The winds aren't right.”

I nodded. “Something big but no storm though.” I turned to my brother. “Are you familiar with the Meteor Strike spell? Could you lead Kaele and me in a ritual casting of it, channeling as much Mana into it as the three of us possibly can?”

He blanched a little but nodded anyway. “Judging Kaele's capacity to channel Mana by the example of the storm she mentioned and yours by some of the feats of spellcasting I got to witness you perform since then the effect would probably be devastating.” He frowned. “It might just be enough to flatten the town, castle and earthworks and all, with one strike. It will be risky though. Casting a spell like that will take some time. We will be vulnerable.”

Now Yath'zur spoke up. “And that is why you called for me. You will need protection. Especially from the wyvern. Those would probably be the only thing the enemy could throw at us to reach us in time to make a difference.”

I grinned, showing a lot of teeth in the process. “Exactly. The ghoul king leading them will probably notice what we are doing pretty quickly. He will throw the wyvern at us and he might redirect any nearby ghouls our way as well. Get some more of your men and women up here. Tortho's rangers will spread out and together with the harpies take care of any ghouls.” I paused briefly. “And we probably should let the rest of the army know to form a wagon fort again and hunker down behind the hills, so the worst of the blast wave won't hit them. I want the gryphons on the ground as well.”

My officers groaned as I added that last part as an afterthought. It was Kaele who spoke what was on everyone's mind. “And of course that blast wave will hit us head on, as we are pretty exposed here on the hill.”

I was still grinning. “We might want to dig foxholes we can duck into once we are done casting. But you have to see the bright side. It might ruffle our hair but it will swat those wyvern out of the sky as well.”