Great haste was made when they came into view of the fortress to get inside, seeing it from a new angle gave her greater appropriation for its design. From the front it was truly formidable, the towers on the lower level held ballista on top and the second level back was dotted with small catapults and hellishly large ballista. The ramparts were now teeming with soldiers standing at the ready, the points of spears could be seen, the natural glow of the fungi making them glisten eerily. Rushing through the gates and onto the second level the soldiers peeled off and formed up in the space between the two walls, joining neatly into another force already waiting.

Behind them the gates ground and groaned as they were slowly shut and skeletons began to bar and reinforce them. As they passed beyond the second wall distant pounding could be heard echoing up the various tunnels, the sound though faint was gentle but held a foreboding of what was to come.

He led her back into the fortress and quickly about faced and promptly checked her over, looking down at herself Shadow realized just how much blood covered everything. Telling her to wait he took off and she paused to look herself over, her chest was mostly clean, her sword arm was drenched in blood, taking her helmet off for a moment it was no longer a steely color but painted dark red, almost black. Her shield was the worst, it even had a piece of skin stuck to it on the outside, the more she looked the more the bile rose in throat, stomach threatening to heave from the smell that now assaulted her. Somehow this had all been ignored but looking at it and thinking...

Such thoughts ended when Valkardian's voice caught her ears, he brought her a small bag and told her to follow him. His pace had slowed now, taking his time, examining more ranks of soldiers as they passed on their way to a tower. Climbing up he led her onto the parapets and took the bag from her and opened it. Eyes going wide he pulled first a bow then quiver from it and gave them to her. Quiver slung snugly over her armor she was given the pouch and told to attach it to her belt. There were over forty quiver's in the bag, each one containing twenty-five arrows. When she used up one, put it back and grab another, keep her shield close and lean it against the crenelations but do not leave it unattended or a passing soldiers might collect it.

"Master, I only ever shot a bow once and that was when you were training me... I fired five arrows and that was it." He smiled at her and patted her shoulder "Dont worry, your about to get a LOT of practice. You are free to wander this wall as you please, remember to duck when they throw stones or other objects!" Leaving her there he disappeared into a tower leaving her alone with the other soldiers. All around her archers were standing rigidly at attention, waiting for commands. As she walked down the line looking out, picking a place that would give her the best view she settled in beside a rank of crossbow soldiers.

Looking them over she decided to call them "crossbow's of doom," they were huge, more like a small ballista's than crossbows. Only the skeletons had the raw power needed to draw the string into place, she would need another pony to help and a winch to pull it back. Clacking caught her attention as the catapults began to be drawn back into firing position, even from her odd vantage point she could just make out the movements on the towers above. Staring below at the first wall the same was being done with ballista's mounted on the tops of the towers, two dense formations had drawn up below now, the gates were left open for a hasty retreat she guessed.

Thudding and pounding grew louder in the distance, glaring at the massive tunnels ahead she was almost trying to burn away the darkness to see just a little deeper. A shout caught her attention and looking at the tower above her Valkardian was peering down at her, and pointed with a heavily armored hand towards the tunnels. "About an hour and the first waves will arrive! Only start firing when the other archers fire, aim high on your first shot and see where it goes then adjust your aim!" He popped back out of sight quickly and Shadow looked back out over the cave. She had not signed up for this when she became an explorer.

*Thud... Thud... Thud...* It was getting a little louder as the minutes ticked by, she glanced to her little "clock" crystal she had kept from so many months ago. This waiting and pounding was going to kill before the trog's ever had a chance too... Trog's... Why was she calling them that now? Why was she not distraught over the idea of killing them? It was very un-pony like to actually look forward, however slightly, to killing another living being. No, she did not see them as living beings, they were monsters and deserved to die after what she had seen. Eating their own kind? Even stopping their attack to drag some dead away to start eating right there on the battlefield? How sick and twisted was the madpony that had made them?

No, they deserved to die and she was going to kill as many as she could. Wait, no, this was WRONG, ponies dont kill! Ponies believe in peace and harmony! Damn Valkardian and his mind games! What was he trying to do to her? The thudding suddenly increased in tempo and became louder, a kind of "war chant" was now audible though soft and distant. To her ears it sounded like gargling, hissing and screeching, maybe to them it sounds terrifying but right now it only put her more on edge. Fear was gone, now only the desire to kill remained, any as vile as the trog's deserved whatever was coming to them.

Looking at the time again she let out a sigh and leaned against the parapet, if what he said was true it would be another twenty minutes before they got there. Sounds really DID carry well in the caves. Unfortunately, the tunnels leading into the massive cavern were so far if that if one DID pop into the cavern she would not see it unless it was a bigger one. Commands suddenly flooded through her mind, she tuned them out, they were not meant for her. Archers notched arrows, the crossbow's were drawn and loaded.

"This is it..." Mumbling to herself, her own bow had an arrow notched as she waited impatiently, the sounds were much louder now, almost as loud as they had been in that first battle. "Any second now..." A mass of movement on the wall below caught her attention, archers suddenly drew and aimed then held ready. The ones near her had taken no action so she waited... And waited... A chorus of screeching and hissing blared out from the largest of the tunnels as the swarm poured out, massive war beasts at the front they barreled forward.

Below the archers let fly a volley and the ballista's fired shortly after, it hardly made a dent in the tide, a few beasts fell crushing some trog's that were too dumb to get out of the way. Each hole was promptly filled right back in and they just kept pouring out. Volley after volley, even the catapults were flinging stones into them grinding trog and beast alike to pulp. No matter how a big hole was punched it filled right back in again, soon the other tunnels were pouring more of them into the fight.

Around her the archers suddenly drew back and readied a volley, the command was audible in her mind but like the other crystal, she could tune the commands in or out with focus. Drawing her own bow back she found it was difficult but do-able. "Loose, repeat" the command was followed instantly all around her, they fired, prepared another volley and kept repeating the command over and over again. Her own lone arrow arched up and into the distance, with great difficulty the followed its path into the distance where it hit something. Well, with that many of them it was impossible to miss.

Adjusting her aim, the shots were now landing somewhere beyond the front of the first wall, every once in a while a magical blast would make the cave echo. Very quickly she fell into her own quiet rhythm, she could not even begin to keep up with the archers or the slower crossbows but Valkardian said to get in LOTS of practice. So she did, lots and lots of practice.

An eternity had passed, quivers had been used up, skeletons rushed along the parapet carrying more of them and issuing them out including to her, taking the spent quiver's away. Well, she was saving quivers now at least, she had only used three from the magical bag on her belt, the rest had been hand delivered. What worried her though was when pilum were being placed in and around her, were they about to breach the wall? Sure the Trog's war beasts had kept hammering on the gates to no avail, whatever magic guarded them was too strong to breach with simple pounding she guessed.

It had begun to get boring, notch, aim and fire, the pilums were laid out, three to each soldier on the wall including three for her, which made six since she had brought three to start with. Only once did she have to swat a soldiers hand that went for her shield and in a loud clear voice "NO!" This seemed to work, it simply stopped, looked at her a moment then lumbered off.

Below her new developments were starting to take place: ballista's were quickly unhooked and removed and rushed through the gate below. A few minutes later the archers rushed from the towers below then the walls and fell behind the ranks of soldiers below and reformed. It was not long before she understood why: the pile of corpses in front of the first wall was now so high it reached the parapet!

Not long after the wall was abandoned they swarmed over it, leaping to their death's on the other side. "Too dumb to use the stairs..." Shadow watched in mild amusement as the trog's blindly threw themselves forward, incapable of anything but a blood frenzy and unable or unwilling to realize there was a hefty drop at the back of the wall they just climbed. Bodies started to pile up quickly enough, soon some were only suffering broken legs and arms. Occasionally some would use the stairs, the war beasts seemed to figure this out the quickest. Yet they still drug their broken bodies forward, so pumped full of whatever it was they felt no pain. The archers and crossbows had kept firing but not at the "jumpers" she termed them, instead firing over the wall into the distance.

"And these are the "smart" ones... By the holy peach how can they get any dumber?" Shadow had long quit firing, instead just watching quietly, now and then Valkardian would peek over and check on her, she would wave. Once she called out how in tartarus these were the "smarter" ones and he just laughed. He was enjoying this...

Then again, so was she, very, very un-pony like. She should feel ashamed of herself but as she kept watching it seemed like this was more a case of pest control than killing. Kind of like putting out poison for cockroaches except instead of poison your using boulders, arrows, bolts and every once in a while a "doom bolt" would zip out and impale a war-beast or if it missed: make one hell of a furrow in the trog's ranks.

"Hey Shadow! Watch this!" He was pointing at the ranks below and she peeked down and the soldiers below began to bang on their shields and stomp an armored foot. *Thud, thump, thud, thump* she kept watching and listening and the result was near instant, an enraged noise rose up from the trog's, part gurgle part howl they came even faster, now hurtling themselves even farther off the wall below, bypassing the mounting corpse pile and splattering on the harder stone floor. Evil cackling was all she caught from the tower above as the soldiers stopped a few minutes later but the results continued for a while longer.

At some point during all of this a servant emerged from the tower Valkardian was in carrying a tray with a goblet and pitcher. Watching it make its way over to her it presented the tray and taking the goblet she took a drink. Watered down wine... Still, it was quite good, cold and refreshing. Placing the goblet back it turned and left her to keep watching. Moments later Valkardian yelled her name, they cushion of corpses below was now getting high enough that the trog's were surviving the jump and making it to the ranks of soldiers in number.

Readying her bow again she began to fire, missing several times. Steadying herself she kept practicing her aim and soon was more or less hitting her targets, the bigger ones just shrugged the blow off and kept going, the smaller ones usually fell almost instantly. Quiver after quiver her aim kept getting better, her arm was sore and her fingers hurt but she kept firing anyway. Below the wall the soldiers were now in a furious battle, the trog's were coming over the wall so fast the wall was now obscured from vision.

How many had she killed? Shadow had lost count after eighty nine, she had made a bit of a game of it even. Picking out one unlucky bastard in the lot, tracking it and bringing it down. A smile came to her face each time one fell on the first shot. Stopping for a brief moment to scan for targets she saw one climb into a tower holding a strip of something.

"Slingers!" Shadow did not even realize she said it aloud till Valkardian called back that they were rather "later" in getting to the battle and to keep her head down, one hit would put an eye out or crack a skull open. Taking his advice she ducked back after each shot. More of them clambered into the towers and soon the sound of stones smacking into the crenelations filled her ears. Valkardian seemed to not give two hoots about it, the soldiers heavy metal helmets protected them very well from these small nuisances. She, on the other hand...

There was a new game afoo: see how many slingers she could kill, not that it mattered. Her aim had greatly improved with all the practice, more than ten hours on the wall and still no end in sight. Notching another arrow she leaned out quickly, aimed and let the arrow zip off at the tower below, just barely peeking around the crenelation to see if it hit. A trog slipped from the tower and fell into the pile of bodies below, Shadow grinned.

"Kathdars!" Shadows head shot up to the tower, Valkardian leaned out for just a moment and pointed. She knew what that was, one of the biggest war beasts, normally they were the first into the fight but now they seemed to be the last. The trog's fury was starting to relent somewhat. Maybe it would be over soon, she was sore from all this archery practice.

The lumbering hulks entered her vision and her eyes grew, she had been told how big they were but actually seeing one was something else. Three of them entered the cave and crushed everything under them as they began to barrel forward. Magic, stone, doom bolts and everything else slammed into them and one by one they fell. The last almost made it, leaping forward before a bolt through an eye brought it down.

As the battle kept raging below more kathdars emerged and like those before were cut down. This seemed to have an effect on the trog's, their minds were tiny but entering a cave covered one end to the other in thick sheets of bodies and now their most fearsome beast caused them to hesitate. Sensing the battle was nearing its end the order to advance was given and the soldiers below though reduced in number marched forward on the attack.

It was the straw that broke the camels back, now on the receiving end of the assault the trog's began to scamper back bit by bit. Soon the slingers were throwing themselves out of the towers to get away. Shadow had taken back up firing at them again, below another formation of soldiers marched out and drew up behind those advancing. The route was on, by the time the soldiers marched up the hill of corpses to the wall the trog's were now in full flight, scampering down the tunnels gargling and hissing in terror as they went.

She watched for a bit as the soldiers stabbed any of the wounded to death as the advance continued. The cave was devoid of "life" now, the trog's had all fled leaving the dead and wounded behind. Cleaning this all up would be... Something else. Valkardian had a soldier bring her up to the tower, he simply ignored her and beckoned out over the battlefield.

From this vantage point it was a sight to behold, the tower was located at just the right height to give him a perfect view of the carnage, from her part of the wall she had only seen a fraction of what was going on at any given moment.

"You have a week to rest up and recover, by then most of the bodies that are useful will have been removed and prepared. After that we are marching down that tunnel and hunting their chief down, it escaped in the fight, this one is smart enough to not join the frenzy. The second time the walls were overrun was because one of the "smart" one got away and came back, they can live a long time and it knew just enough from the one defeat to try again. It had the front ranks run up with debris and formed a pile of stone and dead bodies for the others to climb. That one was a clever little bugger, it must have really burned its brain for a century to come up with that plan."

Turning Valkardian faced her, Shadow caught a glimpse of a helmet in one hand, so he WAS wearing a helmet during the fight, had she just not noticed, so bent on fighting to realize it? She was glad to have not noticed, it was a frightening looking thing of black metal with red and blue runes engraved on it forming patterns. His gauntlets were the same, poking her nose she realized she was staring and straightened up. "Go and get a bath, food and sleep." Waving her off she happily left the tower, climbing down the stairs and returning to her room. Servants brought some buckets of warm water, stripping, cleaning her equipment then herself she dropped onto her bed and staring absently at the ceiling Shadow wondered what her family would say if they could see her now. A pony that delighted in murder, no, not murder, killing... That was still wrong, no she had been right all along: this was pest control and she couldn't wait to kill more of them.