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Order of the Black Foot

Chapter 15: The Order's Might

Sponsored by Leon

By Draconicon

Two months of training would have been the bare minimum for getting a good soldier. The soldiers that Dresnath wanted had gotten that, and he expected them to be great.

He sat on the edge of a river, one of those that ran from the northern border of the Theocracy through the whole damn thing. Draconicon had teleported him and his team in about twenty miles north of their objective, and they'd taken a boat under cover of darkness until the fortress was barely more than a mile away.

The mission was as much a final training exercise as it was something that would help the Order, though the dragon had made it as clear as he could that this was deadly serious. He doubted that Iggy and Kiri took him seriously, but then again, he wasn't sure that the squirrel or dolphin took anything seriously. Long as they were competent, they should be...okay.

Looking over his shoulder, the spellsword dragon could make out the rest of his squad. Specially chosen from those that had done well enough to be trusted on a full mission, they still squirmed a little too much for his liking. Some from eagerness, some from nerves, he was sure, but he would have preferred complete stillness. Perhaps in another month, that might be possible, but they'd learn. He'd make them learn.

To occupy himself, he did a quick headcount, starting from the tallest on the right. That'd be Samson, the biggest guy on the squad. The grizzly could hit hard, and take more hits than most of the guys combined. Big target, though; he'd have to make sure that the rest of the squad kept any aspiring archers or heroes busy to let the big guy get the hits in.

Then there was Jonah, a lion with a sword as quick as his tongue. More of a duelist than anything, still had too much honor to be truly effective, but that'd break eventually. Probably the first time that he got a knife in his ass during one of his duels.

Rogar was next, the raccoon's bow and arrow low and strung, but not nocked yet. Good. Didn't want his best shot to tire out his arm too early.

Iggy was moving the most, twitching half a foot in either direction, his eyes flicking along the shoreline of the river, and down to the edge of the shadow-sheathed horizon, big squirrel tail flicking around. Dresnath bit off the urge to tell him to be still; it'd only startle the three-time thief.

At the end of the line, shortest of them all, was Benjamin, who was, besides him, the stillest of them all. Dresnath moved slowly, slinking down until he was beside the mouse.

"See anything on the water?"

"Not yet. Kiri and Saul should be back soon, though. Rope's almost gone."

"Sure we have enough?"

"Measured it myself. We have enough."

Almost enough to sink the boat, with their combined weight on it. A mile of rope was hardly light, even when it was the magical stuff that some of the Order mages made. Then again, if it held, he'd be happy. It was so thin in the bottom of the boat that he almost couldn't see it, but he trusted Benjamin to have a good handle on it. The mouse was good with those small details.

Leaving the mouse to his work, Dresnath looked down the river to the fort. Fort Midday, the Theocracy called it. It wasn't a tremendously large fort, nor did it guard any of the routes into the Theocracy proper.

What it did do was guard the route between two of the major strongholds that did. It was the connecting route between the large, citadel cities that guarded the roads into the Theocracy, which would become major obstacles between them and the capital city. While Draconicon and the mages could teleport a fair number of people around, they couldn't teleport whole armies without great risk. And they didn't have the manpower to pin down two large cities at the same time.

So, their objective was to smash Fort Midday's leadership, cast out as many soldiers as they could, and open it up for the Order to staff it with a small force to block reinforcements between the cities.

Simple enough, even with an Inquisitor in residence...

A tug on the rope caught his attention, and Benjamin's. As soon as he had the nod of confirmation from the mouse, he gestured at the rest of the group.

"Get low, and stay still. We're going in. Pull as the rope comes to you."

They did as they were told, all six of them huddling low in the boat as he took the rope from Benjamin and fed it back. This close, oars would cause a big disturbance in the water. Instead, they'd drag themselves in towards the secure point that Kiri and Saul had - hopefully - managed to find, and then make their way further into the fort proper.

Dresnath was proud of the group as they did as they were told. While their stillness could use work, they were good at keeping the tugs even as a team. Nobody said anything, no count was given. They just pulled as one. Gradually, they slipped down the river, the cold rope getting pulled in foot by foot.

It didn't take long for the cold to start settling into his hands, but Dresnath resisted the temptation to cast a warming spell on it. The last thing he needed was for there to be someone on the walls paying more than usual attention, or for there to be a cleric that was keeping an eye out for some magic user. If that happened, their cover would be blown, and training or not, they'd be the target for more arrows than he wanted to think about.

Gradually, they moved closer and closer to the high walls of Fort Midday, the stone outcroppings of the wall swooping over the river and casting shadows of its own through the moonlight. It was the perfect cover.

They were about fifty feet away when Saul broke the water beside the boat. Dresnath leaned down, listening to the otter's whisper.

"Five dead on the dock door. Three more unconscious."

"Tie them up if they're officers. Bind them up and throw them in the river if they're not."

"Yes sir."

The otter disappeared again, and by the time they reached the little dock by the bottom of the wall, two bodies were already sliding downstream, gagged and squirming for a bit before they went still. The third was tied to the wall, his eyes covered and his mouth stuffed with what looked like a sock.

Impressive.

He got out first, and the others followed as Benjamin gathered up the rope in a tight weave, putting it in the bottom of their craft. Dresnath stepped through the door, taking in their options, before turning around.

"Okay, this is a supply door. Probably for goods shipped up the river from the capital or something like that. Here's the plan. I'll take Jonah, Saul, and Rogar. We'll take the stairs, find a vantage point, and start working our way through the guards on the wall. Samson." He gestured at the grizzly. "You take Kiri, Iggy, and Benjamin. Make your way to the bottom levels, find anyone that's sleeping. Kill them if you can do it quietly. Block 'em off if you can't. Then come up to the courtyard and make some noise.

"Everyone got it?"

The squad nodded as one, and he nodded back, pulling out one of his swords.

"Let's do this."

They split down the hallway, with the bear's squad quickly slipping out of sight, while he took his group along a longer road. They passed several guards by the kitchen, one taken out by an arrow, the other by a quick stab from a sliding lion.

Up the stairs, in single file, they went. The walls were packed with guards, but he'd trained his men well. Saul slipped into the shadows almost immediately, finding the places between the battlements and the stockpiles where he couldn't be seen. More than one guard found himself dying to the otter's daggers that night, he was sure.

A nod sent the raccoon to one of the sniper posts along the walls, next to a box of arrows. He trusted Rogar to take the shots he needed, and not waste time with ones that he either couldn't make or couldn't be sure of killing. More than that, he trusted the raccoon to make sure that he didn't hit any of the squad.

Jonah...Jonah he kept at his side, despite the lion's complaints.

"You stay with me."

"I'm good enough to fight on my own."

"You'll make a challenge of it. We need to do this fast."

"I can be fast."

"Can you be quiet?"

"...I'm working on it, sir."

"Then stay with me."

They took it in tandem, moving one moving forward while the other kept watch. Every time he came to a stop, Dresnath tucked himself up against the fortress wall, keeping his back against the stone so that nobody could come behind him, and waved the lion forward. They kept up the pattern for the whole way along, and one by one, the Theocracy soldiers died.

There was only one close call, and that was when Jonah slipped his attention for two seconds. The lion jerked past him, crossing swords with a guard that had come around the corner out of nowhere. For a moment, the unfortunate wolf looked like he was about to shout a warning -

THUNK!

And then an arrow slammed into the wolf from behind, killing him before he could say anything, and leaving him slipping forward, impaling himself on Jonah's rapier. The lion caught him, glaring across the courtyard at the hidden raccoon, before whipping his head around to the dragon.

"That one was mine."

"He was yours if you'd killed him, rather than rushing him and giving him a chance."

"He blocked me."

"You wanted to duel him." Dresnath shook his head. "You can make duels like that on the battlefield if you have to. You can do it if an operation goes bad. You don't do it when we need to keep it quiet. Do you understand?"

"...Yes, sir."

"Good."

He had them make another lap around the walls, just to make sure that none of the guards had slipped through the net. They hadn't. Nodding to himself, Dresnath pointed to a statue that overlooked the whole of the courtyard.

"Rogar, get on that thing. If you can make a seat out of that thing's head, do it. I want you to have a good view of this whole thing. Saul, stay up here with him. I want to make sure that he's got someone watching his back, just in case something slips out of the courtyard and makes its way up here."

"Got it, boss."

"Yes, sir."

The raccoon and otter made their way over to it. Turning to Jonah, he asked.

"How much time?"

"We've used ten minutes, sir."

"Means that Samson should be bursting out in about two more. Better get into position."

"We're not joining them immediately, sir?"

"Not quite. They're the main force. We're the reserves, this time."

And I want to see how well Samson does with his command, in the field. The bear hadn't been half-bad as a squad leader during the training exercises, but he had an unfortunate habit of running into challenges that were placed before him without setting out the rest of his squad, first. If that was the case here, he needed to be in place to provide back-up against the Inquisitor.

They made their way down one of the courtyard steps rather than the inner stairwells, and rested below the stone level. Just out of sight, they were able to keep track of the troop movements across it, patrols that were lackluster at best. After all...no one should be able to just slide in here, without magical help.

Almost right on time, the door at the far end of the courtyard flew off of its hinges, and a bear with a giant sword came barreling through. Two Theocracy soldiers met a quick end, almost cut in two by the two-hander sword, and Samson roared.

"Come and get me, Theocratic bastards! The Order's come to call!"

Well, that's about as much noise as I could have hoped for, Dresnath thought with a chuckle. The remaining soldiers - something like twenty of them - came running across the courtyard. A few of them at the back, just out of sight of the rest, were picked off by arrows, while the others came running in.

They quickly learned their mistake.

He had to admit, Samson had played the opening well. The bear's bulk and deliberate showy kills had been the perfect cover to get the more stealthy, smaller guys out through the door behind him, and they burst out of cover as soon as the main body of Theocracy soldiers were past them. The grizzly's two-hander kept the soldiers from closing on him easily, while Iggy, Kiri, and Benjamin started making quick work of them from behind with daggers and shortswords.

Twenty men against four. At the end of it, there were no surviving enemy soldiers, and all of his men were still standing, though with a few mild wounds.

Not over yet, though, he thought as he looked at the keep. The big, central building of the fort had yet to open, and the Inquisitor was in there. He looked around his shelter, gave a slight nod to Samson, who in turn nodded towards Kiri.

"Go knock on their door, you slippery swimmer!" the bear shouted. "Let's show them that we're here to pay our 'respects' to their 'god.'"

"Heh, my pleasure."

This is going to be interesting.

Dresnath knew that Kiri and Saul had been working on various little...explosive experiments, mostly underwater so that it wouldn't damage anybody above it. He hadn't seen much of the results, but he had heard the explosions from the other side of camp. Even if it was just noise, this would probably do something.

The dolphin crossed the courtyard and laid something, a small package of some sort, at the bottom of the keep. Just in front of the door. The dragon could barely make out the spark of some sort of fire coming off of it, like something had been lit, before Kiri ran off.

A few seconds later, an explosion rivaling a bolt of lightning hitting the ground went off.

He ducked behind the stone, and so did Jonah. He heard the scrabbling of claws above him as the echoes faded, and realized that Rogar had probably come close to being unseated. When the whole place stopped shaking, he slowly looked around the corner again.

The door had been blasted off of its hinges, and some of the stone had gone with it. Unlike the one that Samson had kicked in, he knew that the keep door had been made of metal, and had been fortified in many more ways than the supply door. The fact that the explosion had done so much...

Gonna have to ask them what the hell they were mixing up, later, he thought.

However, they had bigger problems. Another twenty soldiers were pouring out, and this time, they'd not have the element of surprise. Particularly with -

A blur whizzed down the open courtyard, white and flashy. Samson's sword was barely in place to stop it, the point of a sword almost touching the bear's nose as the Inquisitor was brought to a halt. Even then, the grizzly's arms looked like they were shaking with the effort to hold off the coyote on the other side.

"The Order has no power here..." the Inquisitor growled. "You'll die here, for your impudence."

"Says...you!"

Samson thrust back, getting himself some space, and Dresnath knew it was time to make a move. He looked over his shoulder, whispering to Jonah.

"You want a fight? Get started. Make it fast, though. No playing around."

"Got it, sir."

As the lion leaped over the side of the stairway, plunging his blade into one soldier and engaging another, Dresnath unsheathed his other sword. He had a feeling he'd need both for this fight.

"Alright, let's get this started."

He ran down the stairs, joining the fight with an impact burst spell from his fingertips. It knocked two of the soldiers over - no paladins, here, not when it wasn't so important - and stabbed their prone bodies. He flicked his swords clean, and leaped into the fray.

The Inquisitor was leaping between Samson and Kiri, obviously focusing on what the coyote considered the most dangerous of the people there. The hardest hitting, and the one that had somehow destroyed the keep. He'd be busy for a while, normally, but Dresnath could see the nicks and cuts that were appearing in the bear's arms already. The Inquisitor's speed needed to be handled.

"Rogar! Trickshots would be good right now."

Hoping the archer heard him, he looked for the squirrel. Finding Iggy in the middle of a struggle against one of the soldiers, Dresnath slammed himself into the rodent's opponent, knocking the Doberman off of his feet and taking the knife-fighter's place.

"Get over there. Help Samson keep that guy busy."

"G-g-got it, sir."

The hyperactive little thief dashed off, disappearing into the crowd as the dragon ended up fighting two of the soldiers at once. He blocked one and dodged around another, swords catching blows and redirecting them rather than holding them at a full block. He wasn't stupid enough to try and hold back the hits; they were swinging full force, and he couldn't reinforce his swords with a two-handed grip.

He dodged around a few times, getting their patterns before sweeping down. Cutting one in the leg and blocking the return stroke of the other, the dragon spun around and finished his opponent with a decapitation.

The battlefield was chaos, pure and simple. Half of the Theocracy soldiers were held back by a series of arrow shots from above, combined with some less skilled shots from Saul - the otter probably picked up a bow from the battlements, come to think of it - but the others were involved in heavy fighting. Jonah had managed to find a chokepoint, something he'd compliment the lion for later, and had about four of them waiting in line to fight him, while the others -

"AGH!"

He whipped around at the scream, seeing Benjamin go down. The mouse was pinned beneath a lizard's blade, barely holding it back with blood coming out of his shoulder. Dresnath growled.

"Hold on!"

"Trying to...sir!"

Catching another soldier's blow on his blades and whipping them around in a disarming swirl, he swung the soldier's sword towards Benjamin's opponent. It didn't hit the lizard, but it did knock him off-balance, letting the mouse get up.

A few more seconds, and the field was more even. More even, at least, being a field where Iggy, Samson, and Kiri were all keeping the Inquisitor busy, Saul and Rogar was keeping most of the Theocracy soldiers behind cover, and he, Benjamin, and Jonah were playing mop-up to clear it.

The situation wasn't quite ideal, but it was better than it could have been.

Leaving Benjamin to do more of the mopping up, he threw himself into the fight with the Inquisitor, running forward and catching the fast-moving coyote by the tail. The Inquisitor's sword came spinning for him, but he ran around, his men backing off to give him room.

Grabbing a tiger by the tail probably would have been smarter than this, the dragon thought, barely keeping up with the rapidly spinning canine. He grunted as he pushed himself faster, faster, until he could get his other hand around the tail and -

"Rraaaaah!"

He grunted hard as he yanked the coyote off of his feet, sending him flying in a spin towards the wall. It wasn't much, probably wouldn't even be felt through the armor, but it set things up for a different fight. The coyote was back on his feet in but moments, but this time, he was surrounded by four people, each one with a weapon pointed at him, whether it be dagger, sword, or two-handed blade. Dresnath panted softly, holding his two swords at either side of the Inquisitor's throat.

"I don't suppose...you'd be inclined to surrender?"

"To Order scum? I don't think so."

"Your choice."

He scissored his blades inwards -

CLANG!

Only to have them rebound off of the metal armor. The coyote smirked, and thrust himself forward, blade already rising, and the only thing that saved Dresnath at that point was the quick-thinking of the squirrel at his side.

Iggy knocked him down, and Samson swung hard. The flat of the bear's blade hit the coyote along the backside, keeping him moving forward rather than moving down, and Kiri the dolphin swung something up from below, something that was glinting and smoky like the thing that had blown in the door.

Oh, boy...

The coyote kept flying for a few more seconds, Dresnath on the ground and Iggy over him, before the thing exploded. The Inquisitor went flying through the air, launched over thirty feet up before coming down to the ground again with a loud bang and a clang. He lay there, groaning, and Dresnath was surprised that the guy was even alive, even if he couldn't move.

"That was...close."

"S-s-sorry about knocking you d-d-down, s-s-sir."

"It's fine, Iggy."

He got up, shaking his head. Shouldn't have forgotten about that. Almost got me killed... The dragon looked around. On the other hand...they're definitely ready for big missions, now. They're more than ready...

As Jonah and the archers finished mopping up, and Samson cut off the Inquisitor's head, both Kiri and Iggy started fondling him, groping at his crotch, while the others were starting to look similarly interested. Dresnath chuckled.

"Alright. Check the rest of the fort, make sure it's clear, and then you can get your reward."

He could use some stress relief, and they were very good at providing it...

The End