Djara

Vanquished

With no emotion, unperturbed, deliberate and inexorable, the Dracon horde began to regroup and swarm towards the walls of Deneb: a black mass of five and half thousand individuals, working as one.

They flowed, up over their own comrades, pouring forward and up, fifty feet, to the top of the city walls.  Spears, pikes and billhooks pushed them back for a moment, but on they surged, sweeping onto the parapets of the city walls.

The thousand men of the Shardahn Legion hacked with swords and axes, but made no dent in the Dracons' advance.

Blades and spears, claws and pincers of the Dracon army slashed, stabbed and crunched into the defenders of Deneb.

Korim and the Black Watch poured onto the elevated walkway of the walls, dealing death with their mourn blades.  The blue lightning crackled and made its lethal mark on the Dracon horde, but even the Black Watch was outnumbered fifty to one.

Korim saw the great, muscled arms of the Black Watch staff sergeant caught in the pincers of two Dracons.  Two more Dracons laid into the sergeant with eight short swords.  The small silver cylinder of the mourn blade dropped from the sergeant's hand and sailed through the air, with blue lightning still crackling from its end.

Korim knew the end would come soon.  In his mind he thought back to the Battle of the Pass, where only twenty of his thousand men had survived.  He groaned and thought, 'no, not again!'

'KRAAK!'  A harsh cry cut the air.  Even as Korim kept wielding his mourn blade against the black Dracons, he cast an eye to the heavens.

Seven dark shadows swooped from above.  Korim saw great curved talons rip into the Dracons around him.  On the backs of giant eagles, sat six dark riders.  The eagles plucked thrashing Dracons from the wall around Karrack Korim, flew into the air and dropped them beyond the city walls.

Two of the eagles returned, and their riders leapt free of their backs.

Korim stood, mourn blade in hand.

'Who is in charge here?'  A tall Peytahn woman spoke to Korim.

'I guess that would be me.  I'm Karrack Korim, Commander of the Shardahn Legion.'

'Good.  I'm Eylana Visharl and this is Kahutchek Simarl.'  The Peytahn woman indicated the man next to her. 

The two eagles flew skyward, then returned to attacking the Dracons on the walls.

Eylana had just one question for Korim.  'Do you have archers?'

'Aye, but arrows are no good against these black devils.'

'Gather your archers to me.  I have something that will stop these creatures.'

'Aye.'  Korim raced along the wall, wielding his mourn blade and trying to reach a group of Eldar who were hacking at Dracons, with little success.

'Yo, is that Jeveer?'

'Ah. Korim, so good to see you again.  Every time I see you there seem to be bodies everywhere.'

'Well, enough of the chit chat... come with me... and bring your bows.'

The twenty Eldar followed Korim, as he moved towards the gate house and Eylana.

'Twenty archers.  Good, that's a start.  Quick, on top of the gate house.'  Eylana pointed to the steps that led to the high point above the gates.

Karrack Korim turned to Simarl.  'Are you up for holding the steps to the gate house?'

'Good a place as any to die, I suppose.'  Simarl flashed a smile at Korim.

On top of the gate house, Eylana removed a small box from her pack and began to fill small glass vials with clear liquid from bottles inside the gold lined box.  She talked to the Eldar leader, Jeveer.