Chapter 351 - 344 — The Broken Flank

The first demon came through the bend in trench with a butcher’s knife raised above its head.

Halven shot it through the chest.

CRACK!

It fell against the trench wall. Two more climbed over it, and the riflemen beside him fired killing them before they could reach near.

Along the left side of the tollhouse, Mausers began cracking from gaps in the damaged stonework. Demons coming out of the abandoned neighboring position dropped into the dirt or scrambled behind the collapsed storehouse.

The first few volleys slowed them.

Behind Halven, armored boots hammered through the yard.

Senn had called forward the warriors waiting beneath the rear wall. Two dozen gathered around a captain whose blue cloak had been burned almost black along one edge. Swords came free of scabbards. Pale light spread across the faces of their shields.

"Through the side gate," Senn ordered. "Hold the ground between us and that storehouse,we lose the ground we also lose the only thing keeping the demons at bay."

The captain glanced toward the machine-gun shelters.

Both guns still faced the quarry approach. The side yard lay beyond their line of fire, separated from the frontal fighting by a bank of earth and the tollhouse’s outer wall.

He raised his sword toward Halven.

"Keep your guns on the slope, Sergeant. Leave this side to us."

Halven lowered his rifle.

"Firendly troops going out! Stop firing into the yard!"

The warriors passed through the side gate and spread along the wall outside. Once the last man had cleared it, the captain brought his sword down and then they charged.

A demon carrying a wooden club turned at the sound of their boots. The captain’s shield struck its face hard enough to lift it off its feet. His sword flashed blue and cut through the creature behind it.

To his right, a warrior caught a mace on his shield. The impact rang across the yard.

CLANG!

He drove forward, forcing the demon backward, while a spearman thrust past his shoulder and buried his weapon beneath its jaw.

The lesser demons had entered the abandoned trench expecting to reach the gun crews from the side. Now trained warriors were meeting them among the ruined buildings.

Knives scraped enchanted shields. Chipped swords broke against blades carrying silver fire.

"Close up!" the captain shouted. "Don’t chase them through the arch!"

His men stopped at the side of the storehouse yard. Beyond its broken entrance, more demons were climbing out of the captured trench.

Halven sent most of his riflemen back to the front.

Borr’s gun roared as another dense group came over the slope. Empty cases bounced from the shelter, and a replenishment soldier hurried past with a fresh ammunition box.

The supply passage remained open.

If the warriors lost the side yard, it would be the first thing the demons reached.

Nesk watched the captain cut down another attacker, then turned toward his ruined firing bay.

"We need that launcher."

The instructor followed his gaze.

"Get the mages."

Senn heard them.

"Take the two repairing the tollhouse entrance. Bring it back if it can still fire."

Nesk was already moving.

The bay’s roof lay in a heap of broken stone and timber. The shell had torn open the front, but the rear passage remained partly sheltered by a fallen beam.

One mage crouched beside it and examined the rubble.

"Where was the weapon?"

"There." Nesk pointed beneath the shattered edge of the firing bench. "I dropped it before we ran."

The mage moved a loose stone.

A section of the launcher’s grip appeared beneath the dust.

Nesk knelt and began clearing around it.

The second caught his wrist.

"Wait until we support that beam."

Gunfire rattled across the ruins. Somewhere beyond the storehouse, an artillery shell burst that sent grit and sand trickling down their collars.

The engineers worked while Nesk and his helper mages dragged loose stones into the passage. A broken length of timber came free, revealing the launcher wedged between the bench and the wall.

The collapsed bench had caught most of the weight above it saving launcher from direct damage.

"Now," the mage said.

Nesk reached into the gap and pulled.

The weapon scraped against stone, caught for a moment, then slid into his hands.

He nearly fell backward.

"There you are."

His helper peered over his shoulder.

"You sound happier to see that than you were to see me."

The instructor took the launcher before either goblin could say more.

Dust filled its crevices. The sight guard was dented, and fresh scratches ran along the body. He checked it carefully, cleared the debris and examined the damage beneath the light from the broken roof.

Nesk watched his face.

"Well?"

"The guard took the blow. The weapon is sound."

He handed it back.

"Bring ammunition."

Nesk slung the light launcher across his body and hurried toward the side yard.

His helper went to the storehouse to fetch more rounds.

Outside the tollhouse, the warriors were holding their ground.

The captain had pulled his men into a short line between two surviving walls. Demons came through the storehouse entrance in groups, sometimes stopping behind the rubble, sometimes rushing together.

One reached the line with a rusted sword in each hand.

A shield smashed its first blow aside. Its second blade caught an alliance warrior across the upper arm before a spear struck it in the throat.

The wounded man stepped back. Another warrior took his place.

More demons appeared beneath the broken entrance.

The captain wiped blood from his eyes.

"Keep the gaps closed!"

Nesk reached a low section of the tollhouse’s outer wall. From there, he could see across the warriors’ position better.

The instructor crouched beside him.

"Beyond our men, see that group coming through the entrance."

"I see them."

His helper arrived carrying a small ammunition bag.

"Three fragmentation rounds. Two smoke. Another soldier is bringing the rest."

Nesk took the first round.

The launcher closed with a firm clack.

He raised it above the wall.

Demons were crowding through the broken entrance, forcing those ahead of them into the yard. Most carried knives, short swords or iron bars. A larger creature shoved them forward with the flat of a cleaver.

THUMP!

The round landed among them group beyond the warriors.

BOOM!

Bodies struck the surrounding stonework. A torn shield spun above the entrance, and the demon with the cleaver vanished inside a burst of dust and fragments.

The captain looked back.

Nesk lifted one hand.

"Found it!"

"Then keep firing!"

The warriors advanced several paces, cutting down the survivors who had already crossed the yard.

Farther uphill, Ilyra watched through her spy glass.

From behind the garden wall, she could see something the men below could not: alliance soldiers crouched behind a loading platform against the storehouse’s near wall.

They had been cut off when the neighboring trench collapsed.

One was waving a strip of blue cloth.

Ilyra spoke to her assistant.

"Tell Senn there are survivors behind the loading platform. Near corner of the storehouse. They have wounded."

The message went down through the communication equipment.

Moments later, a runner reached the captain.

He looked toward the platform, then pointed four warriors along the wall.

"Bring them out. The rest of you stay with me."

Nesk watched the rescuers move.

At the far entrance, demons were gathering again.

His second fragmentation round burst among them before they could rush across the open yard. Those nearest to the explosion fell. Others ducked behind the shattered arch, giving the four warriors time to reach the loading platform.

Two wounded soldiers came out first, supported beneath the arms.

Another followed with blood soaking one side of his coat.

A demon scrambled onto a pile of rubble overlooking their route.

KRA-BOOM!

Ilyra’s AMR struck before it could hurl the weapon in its hand. The creature broke apart against the storehouse wall.

The rescuers kept moving.

Nesk’s helper passed him the last fragmentation round.

Across the yard, several demons had found another opening in the storehouse wall. They crowded through it, trying to reach the soldiers carrying the wounded.

Nesk waited until the rescuers had passed behind the nearer wall.

Then he fired.

The explosion tore through the creatures emerging from the breach. Broken masonry spilled across the opening, and the surviving demons recoiled into the building.

"Ha!" Nesk lowered the launcher. "Now they can use the door like everyone else,nice and easy."

His helper opened the ammunition bag.

Only the two smoke rounds remained.

Just then beyond the storehouse, a cannon fired.

BOOM!

The shell struck the top of the wall above the warriors.

Stone crashed into the yard. The captain disappeared beneath a cloud of dust, then emerged with his shield raised and one man pressed against his side.

"Back to the wall!"

Nesk ducked.

Through the drifting dust, he saw the front of another Warhound.

It had come along the lane beyond the storehouse, close enough that he could distinguish the broken links hanging beside its hull. An alliance shell had torn one track apart near the corner.

The machine could not move but its turret could.

The cannon swept across the yard, following the warriors as they dragged their wounded toward cover.

"Anti-armor!" Nesk shouted.

His helper stared into the bag, then held up a round.

"Only smoke here!"

"Where’s the rest?"

"Still coming from the reserve!"

The Warhound’s gun slowed.

The instructor caught Nesk’s shoulder.

"Those are useful too. Fire at the Warhound—blind it until we get more rounds up!"

Nesk took the smoke round.

CLACK.

He raised the launcher.

The tank’s cannon was settling toward the gap where the last wounded soldiers were being carried through.

THUMP!

The round struck against the Warhound’s forward armor.

For an instant, there was only a small burst of pale smoke.

Then the cloud swelled, spilling over the hull and climbing around the turret until the cannon disappeared.

"Move them fast the smoke wont last long!" Senn shouted from the gate.

The warriors hauled the wounded through the opening.

A flash lit the smoke.

BOOM!

The Warhound fired at the place they had just left.

Its shell smashed into the storehouse’s near wall. The loading platform disappeared beneath falling masonry.

Nesk felt the shock through his boots.

His helper stared at the collapse.

"We were just—"

"More ammunition," the instructor cut in. "Go!"

The goblin thrust the remaining smoke round into his hands and ran toward the reserve.

Nesk shifted along the wall with the launcher held close. It was light enough to carry without help, and he ducked through a doorway before the tank fired another round.

The next shell struck near his previous firing position.

The ruined wall erupted.

Fragments flew across the yard and clattered against the doorway behind him.

Nesk crouched beneath the surviving stonework.

"Persistent bastard."

"It still knows where we were," the instructor said, arriving beside him. "Keep moving when you can."

Across the yard, the captain had brought his warriors back behind a lower wall connecting the storehouse corner to the tollhouse gate.

They still held the flank.

The recovered soldiers were passing through the gate toward the healers. One carried his own severed shield strap. Another kept insisting he could walk while two men held him upright.

The captain looked toward Nesk’s new position.

"That smoke yours?"

Nesk nodded.

"Keep it there."

Beyond them, demon infantry began pushing out of the storehouse again.

The captain turned.

"Shields!"

His warriors closed together.

A few attackers rushed straight at them, screaming. One leaped onto the low wall with a knife between its teeth and another in its hand.

The captain struck upward.

Blue light flashed along his sword. The demon’s legs fell on one side of the wall and the rest of it on the other.

A mace slammed against a shield beside him.

The line held.

Farther to the right, the two machine guns continued firing down the main approach. Their crews had never needed to turn toward the yard. The warriors were keeping that side clear while the guns tore into the larger advance.

Halven looked between the two fights.

"Clips forward!" he shouted.

A carrier pushed a bag into his hand. He passed it along the firing step, raised his rifle and shot a demon trying to climb over the bodies below the parapet.

Artillery thundered behind the defensive belt.

Along the quarry ridge, earth and flame rose around another enemy formation. The bombardment slowed it, but more shapes were already moving through the smoke.

At the side wall, Nesk watched the pale cloud around the immobilized Warhound begin to stretch apart.

The wind pulled a gap through it.

Part of the turret had now appeared.

The instructor passed him the last smoke round.

Nesk fired before the tank crew recovered a clear view of the yard.

THUMP!

Fresh smoke spread across the hull.

The cannon vanished again.

Nesk lowered the empty launcher and looked toward the passage.

"Come on."

The instructor remained beside the doorway, watching the enemy infantry.

"They’ll be here."

Then the Warhound’s engine roared.

Its working track clawed at the rubble, rocking the hull against the broken running gear. Loose stones scattered beneath it, but the machine remained trapped at the corner.

Another shell burst beyond the tollhouse. Dust blew through the passage.

Nesk’s helper appeared out of it, bent beneath an ammunition bag. A replacement followed with a second load.

The goblin slid to a stop beside him.

"Anti-armor. Fragmentation. More smoke."

Nesk caught the first round.

"Missed you."

"Me or the ammunition?"

"Both. Get down."

The smoke around the Warhound flashed.

Its cannon fired again.

They crouched as the shell tore through the roof of an empty building behind them. Tiles and broken rafters crashed into the street.

At the side wall, the captain’s sword rose above his warriors.

"Hold till last breath!"