[M] Siege of Joetel

[Tolvo]

Destrin's soldiers began to get rigid and scrambled at his words. They rushed back and forth while trying to get back into battle at his command. Before everyone's eyes the fake Destrin shifted shapes turning back into the vampiress. "Oh darn." She sounded very playful as she spoke. Rather than engage with Destrin or his soldiers she turned to flesh and sprang upwards with her bat wings. She began to then glide away back towards the middle of the battlefield as the Aqueduct Snakes chased behind to get back into the fight.

It was then that King Joeseph sallied forth out of the gate. He led his knights outwards but didn't leave the perimeter. Instead he circled around with them and relieved the everlasting guard members who were getting too tired to hold their position. The holes in the shield wall were plugged with horses and mounted knights. Finally a portion of the wall crumbled and those not already in position with Joeseph took to plugging the hole with cavalry.

[Eddren]

Destrin shook his head in irritation, but that sort of commander wasn't the type he really confronted directly. "An' don't bloody retreat unless yer losing AN' I tell ya to!" He shouted, turning toward the Aqueduct Snakes on regular horses sitting in reserve, "Alright, men, reinforce tha Knights until tha footsoldiers are done reinforcin' tha collapses parts o' tha walls!" Finally, he cast Earth Rebound and Splitting the Earth back toward where he'd left the two Sorcerers. Hopefully they were okay, but he couldn't be certain since he'd had to leave them unattended while he dealt with the mishap. Hopefully tha bloody King can keep his men in better order'n tha bloody Aqueduct Snakes can recognize their own damned Baron

For the time, he'd have to let the fact that mounted knights were trying to cover for actual shielded soldiers since their manpower was already struggling to keep up with the strain of the battle, and this Vampire meant that he needed actual commanders in place, rather than proxies for himself. Fuck! Ah shoulda picked up one o' tha Mage Muskets!

[Tolvo]

When Destrin arrived the corrupter had an arrow in his gut while Cassandra was retreating casting green fire at a pursuing rider of the Wild Hunt who broke off the chase. She had a cut across her arm but otherwise looked fine while the corrupter was in bad shape. He pointed towards one of the orbs which had stopped charging up. Instead it was dead where it was with the ground around it heavily mutated. "Commander it took a lot of effort but we got one!" It didn't explode or fire on anyone else but they'd managed to take it out.

From the core of the enemy a series of attacks came. First a giant green fireball hit the gates followed by a huge chunk of ice, then a series of mana balls hit and finally took them down. The city was further open to attack and the lines of infantry guarding the walls were starting to get very tired fighting off the undead onslaught. It looked like now the Deathborne were starting to send in their monsters and heavy infantry, after tiring out the defenders. Their flyers fell back and were now circling over their artillery letting the Aqueduct Snakes have the air above their own forces. This battle was going to be hell. The defenders started so strong but were losing the battle of attrition. A group of vampires were fighting their way towards the king below with that giant vampiress at the head of them.

[Eddren]

Destrin grinned. It was true, they had been worn down quite a bit. A lot of Generals would see this as being pretty much impossible. There was an important aspect to keep in mind, though. "Alright, Corrupter. Now, ah'm gunna 'ave ta find a way ta' get this ball rollin'. If ya can move it, we need it moved, pronto." With the skies now theirs, it was time to change up the strategy a bit. "Oi, Cassandra. 'Ave tha Airborne Aqueduct Snakes double-mount Sorcerers, and 'ave 'em usin' Mage-Rifles. They're ta use Hellfire Blasts, focused on tha strong undead. And 'ave tha Cannons redirect their efforts toward tha last functional Sphere." He grinned, "This 'ere is where we turn tha battle around."

It had been a hell of a fight to get to this point, but now that they had a Sphere, even if they couldn't activate it, they could still use it to store the souls. No souls, no undead. That meant that any of the undead they killed, once they got the sphere to the gates, would be dead for good. And Destrin still had plenty of ammo for his Mage-Muskets and cannons.

"Tell tha Shield-Bearers an' knights ta fall back behind defensive lines! Same fer tha mage-musket men!" He whistled for Jessie to come down to him, then ripped off a sleeve for an impromptu bandage for the corrupter, and steeled the man's insides around the wound to help stave off the bleeding. "There. That should keep ya topside fer a while. If ya can't levitate tha Orb over ta tha gates like those Necromancers can, then ah 'ave an idea. Use tha corrupted ground ta lift that Orb, an' get ready ta smash it at an angle away from tha wall on my mark." Depending on if the Necromancer responded with yea or nea, he'd either mount the horse, or cast Earth Rebound on the ground opposite the orb.

[Tolvo]

The corrupter shook his head. "I could maybe move the orb a few feet but it'd be difficult to get it that far." So instead Destrin cast his spell and sent himself flying at the orb. He landed among throngs of undead that surrounded him and immediately pressed upon him. Jagged greatswords all at once swung in his direction.

Knights rode from side to side harrying those that approached the falling back soldiers. The monsters of the Deathborne began to push towards the gate butchering those in their paths. The fire seemed to not be doing a lot of damage to the more skeletal creature but was burning up the lightly armored undead. With the gate broken open still things were starting to look a bit worse. Mage-muskets continued to pelt the enemies from inside shooting at anything that came through the gate. The knights fully pulled back with Joeseph still fighting inside at the lead. The vampires were getting closer and closer to the walls while pillars of blood circled around them.

[Eddren]

Destrin cast upon himself a Steel Scale-pattern, and once again cast Earth Rebound upon the ground. Except this time, he took a few steps back, got a running start, jumped, put his fists together, steelified them, and struck the orb as though he were Splitting the Earth, looking to launch the Orb and himself toward the gate.

For the time being, however, there was little he could do about the Vampires until he could bring the Sphere back to their side. With that in tow, he might very well be able to halt their advance, but not without something to keep them from coming back. He did, however, come up with an excellent idea. "Oi, corrupter! Fly next ta tha sphere, will ya?" He grinned, "So' ya've got corrupted souls in this thing, 'ere. Any chance ya could use 'em ta summon a demon? Like, a big 'un? Maybe somethin' that can throw a lot o' Hellfire down on these 'ere enemies?" If necessary, Destrin would repeat the Earth Rebound-and-knock-Sphere-Into-Ground trick to keep it moving toward the gate, like a really small man dibbling a really big ball.

[Tolvo]

Narrowly he escaped. His antics did work in that he managed to launch the orb to the gates and in the process hit a giant armored undead with it. Though the orb merely fell and the creature barely flinched. Instead it continued on through the gates to join with the heavy infantry at the front. The corrupter cringed as another arrow hit him this time in the shoulder. "I can't summon demons! I don't know how to, I only turn people into demon hybrids!" He took his horse and continued to fall behind the walls while he continued to corrupt the ground around the orb. Cassandra landed beside Destrin. "We need to do something about those blood mages. They're going to wreak havoc when they get close I just know it. And that lead one seems especially dangerous. Commander, maybe we should retreat." She said this as the shelling of the walls continued, they cracked and crumbled further and the gatehouse barely survived another barrage.

[Eddren]

"Nope," Destrin replied, "It's time ta call in tha reinforcements. Tell tha King ta go bring out every levy he has available. All tha ones ah told 'im not ta deploy? We're usin' 'em all. Tell 'im ta 'ave 'em ready fer a charge." Destrin gave a glance at Cassandra, "Tell 'im it'll be pretty fuckin' brutal. Also, get any 'volunteers' ya need, an' start gettin' tha Corrupters ta make me tha biggest fuckin' Demon ya can. Ah want 'im big. Real big. If we can hold off fer long enough, then ya'll see what ah 'ave in mind." He paused, "An 'ave some other corrupters maintainin' this Sphere, makin' sure it corrupts an' captures souls proper-like. Channel 'em inta tha corruption process, if ya can. Come get me when yer done."

As Destrin looked to see the Vampires and their blood columns, he put a hand on his chin. And then....He grinned. "OI!" He called out, "MAN THA MANCANNONS! AH WANT ONE MANCANNON AIMED AT EACH O' THOSE COLUMNS AN' READY TA FIRE ON MY MARK!" Running forward, he waited until the columns were nearly upon the wall...And then he turned them to steel. He rose a hand, "FIRE THA MANCANNONS AT THA COLUMNS!" Waiting to see if they were knocked over, he'd order them to keep firing until the columns had finally tilted, before waving to the Knights. "Run down those Vampires! Now that they're trapped in those bloody columns!"

[Tolvo]

Cassandra saluted to Destrin then flew off upon her horse. It took a bit of time to set things up. They did their best to aim and fired some armored solders at the vampires. When the soldiers hit the pillars they slammed into them hard. The vampires looked flabbergasted by the ordeal and were without their source of power. They took to attacking the soldiers who landed. From inside of the city came more of the levied troops. The militias were prepared and joined the fray. Along with them joined in the lowlanders who took to defending the gates. Pikes and halberds set up around the broken gates. it was a killing field as undead swarms ripped apart any they neared while guns constantly tore into the undead. Fear was spreading through their own soldiers. The knights did their charge anyway and broke free of the gates and the stranglehold their. They charged out into the vampires and did a deal of damage with the King at the head of them. With the pillars constraining them and without their sources of power the vampires were lanced and cut down mainly. King Joeseph began to duel with the vampiress on the outside while the hordes of Deathborne merely marched around him.

[Eddren]

Destrin climbed up onto some nearby rubble to give the levies a solid look. "OI!" He'd shout at them, "You'd be fuckin' FINE in this battle if ya'd keep yer bloody arms straight! You!" He pointed out one particular soldier, trembling in his boots, "Yeah, you, tha one who forgot ta shit afore 'e came ta tha battlefield! Yer legs're too close! One good charge by tha enemy, an' yer knocked over! Lemme tell ya, ya don't wanna be crawlin' on this battlefield! Lots o' shit on tha ground today!"

He gestured toward the battlefield, "Ah know right now, it looks fuckin' scary. Lots o' dead fucks runnin' around, goin' 'ooh,' 'aah,' like a bunch o' fuckin' pricks. But yer in luck. Yer facin' tha SECOND--Well, THIRD most incompetent force in tha fuckin' world. Tha second bein', o' course, the Southern Dominion, who thought they were so fuckin' smart challengin' us ta a fight. Tha only reason they can win fights, is because they have a couple o' pricks in their dead mums' fuckin' dresses, out in tha back bringin' their men back. But that won't fuckin' work for 'em. Ya see that?" He gestured toward the sphere, "THAT was them bein' SO fuckin' bad at defendin' their own shite, that we stole one o' their own soul stores from 'em! That thing, right there, if used juuuus' right, fuckin' stops 'em from comin' back. Jus' like that! An' ya see that?" He pointed toward the sky, "These fuckin' morons gave up tha air advantage! So right now, we 'ave 'em fucked in tha sky! We have 'em out-fucked fer magic! Their only men, tha fuckin' Vampires, who coulda stood a fuckin' chance, just got fuckin' steam-rolled by our knights! So you've only gotta do one thing now! Lower those halberds! Put on yer fuckin' big-boy dicks! Ram tha first inta their chests, an' tha last inta their fuckin' asses, because TODAY--WE'RE GUNNA FUCK THESE DEAD SO! FUCKIN'! HARD! NOW FUCKIN' CHARGE AN' SHOW 'EM WHY YA DON'T FUCKIN' INVADE THA SOUTHERN KINGDOMS!"

He'd gotten himself so riled up that he actually spearheaded the charge, battlepick held high, ready to come down on the first Undead in sight.