Prickly

  dell feels sick, he doesn't even know how much time passed, but he 't even check or puke now. It didn't take long for the pn to start, and the Malen army to invade Melthazar's front yard. A bomb through the portal to destroy it on their side, causing the portal to appear somewhere at random within the world. Now they have taken a nearby defensive position around an easily defendable church. A mountainous valley with the portal appearing on the inner mountain part, with a river on one side that has a dam over it on the east side. The push for the church was difficult sidering how little padin presehere is, and it is perhaps the best pce they could hope for to defend. Sure enough, padin respoo their invasion an of hours, and the main route they would be using was across the dam.

  dell parries a padin with his bayo desperately, being far outmatched on his own in melee. Good thing as a liquidator you are never either of those, a volley from a nearby squad pushes the padin back, but sidering the padin was only barely pushed back shows how elite they are pared to even the powerful padins of Brynya. Killing his fellow man has gotten easier for dell, he's already the worst human war criminal out there anyway.

  This dam is a vital access point for the enemy, a bridge that allows the easiest access to the Malen forces, dell's troops had tried destroying it, but evee did minimal damage. sidering everything, being able to push a padin back with only five liquidators is a miracle, one dell did not ask for. He did not pce himself in the heat of battle for nothing, the only momeops feeling sick is exactly one sed before killing a man, when he's most focused. He hasn't had many of those seds, the liquidators act more as ss in this battle for the big hitters.

  One of those big hitters drives past the iower he's in, as a clear view of the ndstrider ripping into the padins, before meeting a quick demise as a sword destroys the tank in one ssh. The life expecy of tank crew isn't high, by virtue of actually being a threat. Demons fall out of the sky like flies to priest AA, and more than on Zveno has crashed already. More and more padins e into the battle every hour, reinforced from the entire world, as they seek to expel this threat. They have already gotten word of the Malen cross-p invasion. Their will to fight is about as high as the Malens, who have stopped g much about anything.

  The one advantage Malencia has is currently in the back li the church, Esstrey said she knew how to reach Melthazar himself, and took most of the elites with her, while tasking dell with the buying of time. dell looks to the advang enemy, and predicts they will have to pull back again. He shoots a signal fre to the sky, signaling another withdrawal from this piece of the dam. Padins attempt to push their advantage, but are blocked by the undead instead. Bow and liches are released to unleash havoc while the rest retreats, undead are normally weak to holy magic, but the Boears to be an exception, and liches have adapted their neancy to work based off that. dell runs out of his iower to retreat as well, he doesn't want to live longer, but if he dies more of his people will die in the resulting panic.

  From one of the iowers behind enemy lines, a priest aims her staff at dell. Every tower taken makes it more difficult to hold the nearby area, but the dam is big enough to retreat frequently. Right now, multiple priests are firing oreating Malens and the air units from their fortified position.

  "Retribution!" A bruised and bloodied Krenkov appears behind the priests, he had somehow snuck past the padins, pying dead on more than one occasion. dell looks in depressed apathy as one of his most trusted subordinates buys him a little more time. Krenkov stabs at the priests like a madman, and takes down a few of them with precise stabs to their brains. Nothing else could kill the servants of Melthazar.

  dell runs to the defensive lihe st iower of the dam, but not the st line of defense. Making the enemy bleed for every step is easy, slowing them down, not so much.

  Fiends are sshed like fodder, the best surveilnce do is ambush the occasional squad of priests, air forces are fighting tooth and nail to stay afloat, the undead are mere distras. The only ones who shoromise in this battle are the liquidators and the ndstriders, they are far more suited to taking a beating. Mazurians did well in Brynya due to their numbers, but they have the unenviable job of handling the war and being decoys in the war against everyone else.

  It takes a few hours for the eo push further again, to the point where the current iower stands at risk of falling as well. dell thinks of staying a little longer, who knows? Maybe someone will try taking another shot at the retreating liquidator. Thehinks of Krenkov, a man who time and time again had shown unwavering faith in dell. He paid the ultimate price, all to rescue a man who lost the will to live.

  dell grips his gun and calls a retreat, he should live, if not for his own sake, he should live so that the others who have faith in him don't o jump in front of a shot meant for him. How will he minimize casualties on his side? How will the logistics be distributed, and which peed ambushes? These thoughts run through dell's mind as his men climb on a retreating ndstrider.

  Time, he just o buy time. To defeat the enemy here is an insane cept, to kill their god even more, but not his job, not his problem. His duty is the survival of his people, and he will not besmirch the legacy of the people who sacrificed themselves.

  Prickly