Geared up and ready to go. Shadow waited in the hall, Valkardian said it would be a minute more and they would be off, something to do with realigning the portal and a last minute checklist. Nervous, that was the word she was looking for, they were going to face an invasion, not only that but SHE was going to fighting this little war. How? Not a clue. Considering how the caves looked (what little she had seen so far) the fighting would be cramped and from masters own words: very, very bloody.

Stepping from the portal room a servant beckoned her in and hefting her new equipment she walked in, the portal was ready and glowing, another room waited them lined with soldiers. They went through and emerged in the chambers, the portal quickly being shut down behind them. Valkardian stood still for a minute, his eyes glowing a bit more she noted, whenever he was commanding them be it the servants, soldiers, farmers or any of the other's his eyes always had a magical glow. With a quick gesture he took off and left the room, Shadow racing to keep up with his fast pace.

The building they were in quickly emptied out into a courtyard where soldiers were assembled in blocks, not just any soldiers though, these were troglodyte skeletons. So he was using their own against them... That certainly had a fear factor, facing down your own in battle, she asked as they quickly walked along and the only answer was "psychological warfare." Whatever works she guessed. Mounting a stairwell and climbing to the top they emerged on the parapet. The wall was high, dizzyingly high, there was a second, lower wall some two hundred yards out, deep spike filled pits and beyond that she strained to make out details.

The cave was wide and long with a slight downward slope, several tunnels connected here, she could make out two massive tunnels in the distance. The cavern floor was dense with glowing moss and what she assumed was mushrooms. No trees of any kind grew, just dense moss covering everything. The strange part was that there had been no moss in between the first and second wall let alone the courtyard.

"Master, why does the moss not grow here and what happened to the trees?"

"Simply put, I keep the trees cut so there is nothing to block the view or fire lines, also without trees there is no cover. The moss grows thickly down there because that is the FIRST wall ever built here, what we are standing on is the second built after the first battle. The moss grows only beyond that one wall because the ground there is a thick matting of dead trogoldyte's. The ones that could not use used as soldiers, servants and so on were left to rot, they turned into fertilizer for the various mosses and mushrooms and over the millennia soil formed and what you see now is the result. The moss is DENSE because it gets so much fertilizer every century and a half or two. This would be RICH farmland if it were not for the dangers lurking beyond these walls."

He scanned the caves one last time before heading down Shadow tailing close behind "Shadow, my fortresses in these lower regions are the dividing line between the "safer" upper levels and the nightmares below. They serve their purpose well, step beyond these walls and your life is in terrible danger."

The "keep" as he called it was carved directly into the cavern wall, rising some five levels with arrow slits and bigger ones that held ballista. The portal was on the ground floor and farther in, soldiers would arrive through it shortly she was warned and she was free to explore the keep, should the enemy breach the second wall this keep was her "last stand." Valkardian assured her the odds were ridiculously low of that happening again, the enemy had only twice managed to absolutely overrun the walls and courtyard before being thrown back. A second keep was across the cave, simpler in design, it only housed archers, ballista and a small company of crossbow soldiers.

Walking the narrow halls was boring though, no carvings, just rough floors and walls, this place was built for a single purpose: WAR. There were no frills, every turn was a choke-point, minimal rooms and doors. Standing behind a ballista she examined the beast of a machine, it was made of some wood but mostly metal. Even the "string" was metal, a dense woven cable of metal, even with the gears the sheer amount of brute power required to operate this thing was beyond her. Smaller ones existed elsewhere, so why did he have something like THIS put in? She knew all about the monstrosities down below already and that the troglodytes would use them to "breach" the wall if they got the chance. Examining one of the bolts laid against the wall she wondered if the monsters really WERE that strong or if this was overkill.

Most of the rooms held supplies, extra weapons, shields, armor but more than anything there were bins heaped upon bins marked arrows or bolts. One room held nothing but pilum, thousands and thousands of them right to the ceiling. Just how many troglodytes was he expecting to attack? That had been left out in her lessons other than to say "swarm." Two rooms had been prepared, one was Valkardians usual room, this time Shadow had a smaller room all to herself. They were the only rooms in the whole place that were cozy, polished floors and walls, bed, dresser, armor stand and a weapons stand too. Sitting on her bed she twiddled her thumbs, this waiting was boring.

A soldier had been sent to collect Shadow, he had everything in place, a force already waiting on the far side of the outer wall, it would appear Shadow would be getting some extra lessons ahead of schedule. Watching her arrive he led her off through the gatehouses and soon they stood out on the dense moss field, a large host of soldiers at the ready. She kept staring at him trying to figure out what he was doing.

"The enemy chief seems to be one of the very RARE "smart" ones, it only sent a few scouting parties up before we arrived. Rather than wait on it to "organize" its swarm I am going to draw it out by engaging one of its smaller groups. This will set off a chain reaction as the swarm itself rushes up to join the battle, we will be gone by then and once they have begun swarming they can not be stopped. Their leader will simply push them forward in waves to attack, whatever plan forgotten in the desire to slaughter and eat."

*Hump* "They are so hell bent on fighting they never realize they are up against the dead until the battle is on and even then their pea sized brains are incapable of changing their swarming behavior, they just keep coming till they are all wiped out. Frenzied, that is the word."

"Master, where will I be?"

"Oh, you will be with me the entire time, stay close and whatever happens do not get separated from me, when the order to fall back goes out we will be moving quickly and you do NOT want to be left behind."

Shadow nodded and just as quickly the first companies began to march down one of the massive tunnels, it was like watching a snake slither off the way the soldiers linked up one company behind another. Joining in the middle they set off. Looking at him a question popped up: "Master, why are you not wearing armor?"

"Who said I was not?"

He had not even glanced at her, near as she could tell there was no armor on his head or hands, maybe it was hidden under the robes? No shield but then he had hidden that sword from her during training under the robes somehow.

The march continued for a short time before a fight broke out, scouting party she was told. It only took a moment and the march continued and after many bends and twists, side tunnels and turns she was completely lost. If she were to be left behind now she would never find her way back now. With a lurch the pace suddenly quickened and soon she felt Valkardian pushing her to one side as the rear companies rushed past and began forming up.

This cave was not as grand as the other, smaller, narrower, only one entrance and exit, they were on the high ground looking down and looking farther down she saw a small group of the enemy. Troglodytes sat munching on one of their own and now were turning their large, milky white eyes up to the ranks of soldiers above.

"Come on you stupid bastards, you can see us already, what does it take to make your tiny minds work? Attack!"

Shadows head had snapped towards him at this sudden outburst, turning back the troglodytes kept staring and finally one jumped up, panicked and ran down the tunnel. The rest of them watched it go, turned back, acted confused then scampered after it. Valkadian had not been joking when he said they were "dumber than hell" and dense as a lead brick. A small electrical shock touched her ear and worked its way into her mind, jumping she saw he had touched her ear.
"Shadow, I linked you into the magic that I use to control my forces without the need for words, sound or signal, you will be able to hear every command now."

Never had his mouth moved, she could hear him in her head clearly, his face was watching the far tunnel intently. Curiosity wormed its way up as her ears suddenly picked up distant fighting and banging. Sounds echoed up and into the cavern, it was eerie hearing them and they were most certainly coming. Pounding of weapons and feet grew louder and louder. Gargling, howling and other strange noises greeted her ears and only grew in number and volume, a couple burst through the tunnel and raced wildly forward.

"Ready weapons."

Hearing the command Shadow watched as the ranks quickly brought their shields up and weapons were readied a moment later "hold ground, defend, kill" entered her mind and the first of the troglodytes slammed into the front ranks and were cut down instantly. Not a moment later the "swarm" emerged from the tunnel, fear lanced through her stomach, they poured out like a tidal wave, all manner of sizes. Some were huge, lumbering ones, other creatures were with them, "tamed" and used as war beasts.

"You are in for a treat today Shadow, they brought their siege breakers with them..."

Looking back and forth between Valkardian and the oncoming wave she was sick with worry and doubt, if he had not been standing there so calmly she would have bolted. This was too much, just too damned much for them to handle.
"Army, sheath weapon, pilum ready, first rank, throw, down. Second rank, throw, down, third rank..."

Commands flowed out as rank by rank threw their pilum with staggering force, they did not even arch out like her own did, Shadow had to aim high and allow it to drop into the target. The soldiers simply aimed nearly straight ahead and threw, ducked and the rank behind repeated the process. Four ranks hurtled their pilum into the ranks, the spacing in the command allowed a spacing that meant the pilum were rarely wasted.

"Army, ready weapons, hold ground, defend, kill."

All as one the soldiers were back up in a flash and as the troglodtyes slammed into the formations the killing began in earnest. Rarely did a soldier fall, very rarely, the enemy threw themselves, biting and snapping or flailing wildly which had no effect agaist the shields let alone armor. The bigger ones however would swing hard, usually killing some of their own in the process before lumbering in and getting cut down by the furious stabbing of the soldiers.

Two arms reached out at the enemy, Shadow watched back and forth quietly as Valkardian muttered something and an explosion of light shot out from his hands. Lightning burned and blasted its way through the enemy swarm, he had aimed for the largest concentration of "siege breakers" and now they fell dead, bodies charred.

It did not stop either, the killing just kept going, her ears hurt from all the ruckus, every once in a while the order to "rotate" would go out and the soldiers in front would slip back and another take their place. He had explained in one lesson this was to prevent their shields from breaking, the soldiers NEVER tired but the constant pounding could eventually shatter shields creating holes in the line. For HER it was a bigger threat, she could tire and fall or if the shield broke too...

How long had they been here? the bodies had piled up, he had begun to march them forward very slowly, in fact this was boring to her. It was like mowing grass, whenever the war beasts appeared he shot them down, if they grouped too much he burned them away.

Her attention was quickly drawn to the extreme right, some bigger ones had instead of just rushing head on now clambered up the wall and hurtled themselves over the lines and behind them. "Shadow, ready, face right!" Without even thinking she brought her shield up, faced them and drew her sword. Most of them died quickly when the rear rank about faced and cut them down. A few however had seen the two standing on their own.

Animalistic brains in gear they were racing towards the "weakest" of the herd, isolated and thus an easy target they loped and sprang forward with frightening speed. She was shaking when one of the smaller ones that was leading the way leapt at her. "Shadow! Stab it to death!" His voice rank in her head and with a scream that was part fear and panic and one part battle cry she shoved her sword forward and felt the blow land. She was thrown back by the impact of the creature slamming into her shield. Stabbing wildly now she just kept slamming her sword into it again and again, wet, sloppy sounds came to her ear as it gurgled and slid off her shield.

Panting and staring at it she never heard the command to get down, standing there first looking at the body then back up as the other two reached her. The one towered over her, a full eight feet tall and hefting its weapon, her ears would have flattened back had her helmet prevented it. Throwing herself to one side she avoided the blow and a split second later the creature fell dead, its body blazing. The next command she did hear: "Shadow, finish the last one quickly!" Back up she rushed forward and plowed into it, the last smaller one was staring at the one on fire trying to figure out what happened. Ramming it with her shield it fell back and thrusting quickly it let out a gargled cry and fell, standing over it Shadow kept stabbing till it stopped moving.

Standing back and looking down she nearly retched but she felt a solid "thump" through her helmet. Jumping and spinning Valkardian was eyeing her up and down, she relaxed a moment then the situation hit her all over again.
"Shadow, steady on, the battle is just about over, be ready to go or I will have soldiers drag you away."

He turned away from her focusing on the battle again, taking a deep breath and pushing it aside like she had been taught she looked forward again, sure enough the enemy wave was thinning out quickly. Some were already running away and soon it became a stampede as they flowed away from the soldiers and down the tunnel.

"Army, about face, section 1 return to base, section 2 follow..."

Commands went out for a moment as the soldiers quickly formed up and marched away rapidly. Remembering the warning she joined Valkardian again in the middle as they moved at a quickened pace. Along the way he warned her that no matter what just keep moving forward, they had to get back inside, seal the gate and be ready, it would be a matter of hours before the main forces combined and rushed the fortress.

Shadow felt like running, she wanted to get behind those massive, safe, well defended walls. The "nightmare ballista's" as she had dubbed them made sense, a pilum would have a hard time dropping the bigger ones. Praying all the way she hoped there were either too few beasts or more than enough ballista's to halt them. Valkardian knew what he was doing and had kept preparing the defenses over the millennia but still, she wanted to make absolutely certain.