You are Summoned

I used the mech’s legs to crush the skeletons near me, while at the same time, I fired magic missiles at targets further out. The two companies of gnomes that had been held in reserve turned to face the skeletal threat, attacking furiously, and allowing the engineers to disengage from melee. Our attackers didn’t seem to be inclined to damage the siege engines, and they left them alone as they pushed toward their living foes.

“Everyone, shift your focus to deal with the skeletons, our soldiers can handle the rest of the zombies,” Fitzfazzle ordered, but most of us were already engaging the skeletons since they had appeared almost directly under our mechs.

Over from the human side of the battlefield, I could see their archer detachment drop their bows in favor of the various melee weapons they had belted to their waist. Unfortunately, the archers wore little in the way of armor, only a padded gambeson stood between them and the clawing hands of the skeletons.

Unfortunately, the human mages were some of the first to go down. Several of the skeletons had appeared right under their feet, and their robes provided little protection against the claws and teeth of the undead. As the last mage fell, he lost control of the spell he had been trying to cast, and a mana explosion blasted away everything within five feet of him.

Bright, golden light began to appear around the human war priests as they called upon their divine magic. In a fifteen-foot radius around the priests, undead creatures dropped to the ground as the necromancer’s magic that had reanimated them was extinguished. I worried that the skeletons would reanimate once they were out of range of the war priests, but all the undead that had dropped stayed down.

The gnomish mages weren’t idle during this time, and they kept up a steady stream of summoned creatures to help defend against the skeletal threat to our rear. My efforts had created a small open space around me that was devoid of the undead. Magic missiles continued to fire from my launcher taking out the closest threats I could see. If anything got too close, my spear would shatter them.

Even though it could do significant damage to the mob of undead, I held off on using the blunderbuss. Skeletons and zombies were likely only the beginning of our troubles, and I wanted to save my big guns for what I feared was coming. The surprise attack had done some damage, but we were quickly recovering. Horns sounded nearby and the thunder of hooves was heard and felt as the cavalry on each flank charged.

A lance wasn’t the best weapon to use against a skeleton, but when propelled by the speed and mass of a horse, they shattered any bones they hit. Like a wave, the fifty human riders on the gnomish side of the line pushed through the skeletal ambushers, trampling down the bulk of their number on the first pass. Once past our camp, the horses wheeled around for another charge. On the other side of the line, the other fifty riders were doing much the same.

From directly behind us, the gnomish cavalry on their bleating ram’s charged in. Their attack proved even more effective than the human cavalry, as the beast’s horns shattered bone with little effort, their riders added to the carnage as they passed, small gnomes cackling gleefully as they swung their weapons at any undead within reach.

Lord Braithwaite and his knights were also hard at work clearing out the undead. With both the knights and their horses covered in heavy armor, the skeletons and zombies could do little to harm them. The tide had shifted in our favor and now it was just a matter of mopping things up while taking as few casualties as we could manage.

It took time, but we finally cleared out the last of the undead. Our forces weren’t going to get much sleep tonight as we were warned by the priests that this close to the necromancer’s lair, any remains had to be dealt with quickly or they could spawn fresh attackers. The men and gnomes gathered the fallen where the priests blessed them and then we burned the remains.

Our losses were light, but they still hurt. Over a hundred gnome warriors were dead or too badly injured to fight. Among the fallen were several of our engineers. Lumpy assured me that the surviving engineers would be more than sufficient to operate the siege engines, but their rate of fire would suffer. The worst blow to our forces was the mages that had been caught behind the lines by the skeletons. We were down to nine mages, which should be enough to keep our mechs going, but it was going to be difficult if the battle for the crypt dragged on.

Among the humans, the losses were around the same. Around fifty footmen had fallen, as well as a score of archers. Only five of the cavalry had been lost, but many of the horses had perished, forcing a handful of riders to join the footmen for the time being. Every mage on the human side had fallen, which would seriously hurt our long-range firepower. As a percentage of their total force, the humans had come out worse than the gnomes, but they were still in the fight.

“All right, everyone stay out of your MESS’s, and let the mages do what they can to recharge our mechs and wands,” Fitzfazzle ordered after we finished hauling the last of the fallen to the pyres.

There was food and drink for anyone that wanted it, and I found that after a battle I seemed to develop a horrible thirst. There was water and even a cask of ale for each gnome to have half a pint. I made sure to drink my share as soon as I could get my hands on a pint. They might serve it warm, but the beer and ale on this world was much better than what we made back home.

Moving around in a mech wasn’t very physically demanding, and the battle had lasted less than thirty minutes, but I felt mentally drained. The mages looked even worse than I felt. They had expended a lot of mana during the fight, helping to hold back the skeletal ambushers. Thankfully, the human priests were able to deal with any infected wounds among both the gnomes and humans, allowing what little mana the gnomish mages still possessed to be used in charging our mechs.

Scouts had already been sent out, I think everyone was expecting something else to pop out and attack us. Our foe had lost a large force in the assault against the gnome village, and we had also cleared out the infestation at the lumber camp. Resources, even for a powerful necromancer holed up in a crypt, were limited, and we had to have caused a serious dent in his forces.

The consensus among the military leaders was that the necromancer Pharox would stay on the defensive, using the ruins of the city and the nearby crypt to shield his remaining troops. A necromancer this powerful was bound to have things more deadly than zombies and skeletons stashed away for an emergency. We’d already seen giants and the horrifying creatures the necromancer at the lumber camp had created.

Several of the mounted human scouts had gone out as soon as the fight was over. Now, a few of them came charging back into camp. I had a feeling our work wasn’t over tonight, and I moved back to my mech where one of the mages was working on charging it back up.

“Looks like trouble, how’s the charge on my wands?” I asked the mage.

“I was focusing on recharging the mech itself first, but if you’d rather have the wands ready, I can shift to them,” the mage offered.

Thinking about it, the mages had worked earlier in the evening on recharging our machines but hadn’t been anywhere near finished when the undead had attacked. The mechs were usually low on charge by the end of the day, and while I might need more ranged firepower, having my mech running for a longer period of time would be the safer option.

“No, you’re right, let’s get the mech charged first,” I agreed.

“I’ll do what I can now, but my mana is low,” the mage admitted as he got back to work. I’d already suggested some type of fuel gauge on our mechs, as well as an ammo counter for the wands, but a solution would have to wait for the next version of the mech.

“No rest for the wicked, Rico, mount up, the scouts have spotted the dwarves. They must have known we were under assault and marched out to help, unfortunately, it looks like they’re under attack themselves,” Fitzfazzle said.

We put together a relief force. I would go, along with Fitzfazzle and another first-generation mech. Lumpy would be in command of the gnomish forces that stayed behind to keep the camp safe. Warmaster Glumbleflump would lead the three companies of infantry that were in the best shape.

Lord Braithwaite and his knights, along with the rest of his cavalry would ride with us. Two scores of human archers would join the gnomish infantry, and the rest of their forces would remain behind in the camp. I was happy to see one of the human priests was joining us since the gnomish mages were pretty much tapped out at this point. A half dozen gnomish cavalry also volunteered, but Glumbleflump wanted the rest to remain behind and help defend the camp.

We formed up within minutes and moved at the pace of our infantry. Scouts reported the battle was still going on, but the defensive square the dwarves had formed was breaking up. Calling for double time, Warmaster Glumbleflump pushed his infantry to a slow jog. It would mean they would get to the battle fairly winded, but it was better than getting there fresh, only to find the dwarves had been wiped out.

It was only a few minutes later when we heard the sounds of battle. Our scouts reported that there was a mix of zombies and skeletons assaulting the dwarves and their rough estimate of numbers put the enemy undead at somewhere around 800. Several ghouls also stalked among the undead, which was going to make things tough for our infantry.

Fitzfazzle joined Warmaster Glumbleflump and Lord Braithwaite for a quick planning session. After less than a minute they broke up and Fitzfazzle spoke over the strange, one-way communication crystal installed in the mech.

“We’ll need reinforcements. Warmaster Glumbleflump has sent for three more companies of infantry and two more MESS’s to join us. Lord Braithwaite is calling for more of his forces as well. It’ll take time for them to get here, but for now, we concentrate on breaking through the undead and linking up with the dwarves.”

Flickering torches lined the dwarven formation, illuminating the fight as we drew near. The dwarven formation had broken up into several small, and separated pockets of defenders. A large banner was held in the center of the largest knot of defenders, telling us where the dwarven leader was located. That banner would be our target, and breaking through to them wasn’t going to be easy as more and more of the undead noticed our presence.