"Well, this is a surprise," Fornos muttered, peering down at the enemy fort through a spyglass. The morning mist had burned away, revealing more than just crumbling stone and half-dead defenders.
Across the battleground, where they had expected to find a scattering of outdated machines, a veritable wall of steel and stone loomed. Thirty golems. Fully operational.
Fornos lowered the spyglass, lips twitching beneath his mask.
"Ten climbing the cliff, twenty pressing through the forest," he said aloud, voice calm, even thoughtful. "This could be a problem."
Without turning, he raised one hand and gave the signal.
"Signal for Mist Maneuver."
Three men behind him—logistic runners trained in semaphore—snapped into motion. Flags flew in practiced rhythm.
Southern Forest
The trees were burning. Or so it seemed from the way light flickered through them, reflecting off armored limbs and grinding golem joints. Roa crouched beneath the low branches of a scorched oak, eyes tracing the jagged silhouette of the mountain.
"Throw in the spores!" she barked, rising to full height.
Several handlers pulled taut the cords on sling-like catapults, launching sacks of gray fungus into the battlefield. The sacks exploded mid-air or burst on contact, spilling thick clouds of toxic spores that settled like death on the mossy ground.
"Blaargh!" "Cover your faces! This is poison!!" "Retreat back!!"
Enemy voices choked out in pain, confusion. Their human ranks scrambled to withdraw, some collapsing outright, gasping, clawing at their masks or eyes.
Roa didn't flinch. "Mark, you're up."
Mark, ever silent, raised a hand forward. His intent didn't need words. Thornjaw roared ahead, its maw of jagged metal teeth wide and spinning like a grinder.
With a thundering gait, the golem charged the toxin-soaked battlefield. Screams followed its wake as it cut down stunned combatants, ripping through lesser golems that couldn't move fast enough to brace. One enemy golem swung a flail, only for Thornjaw to catch it mid-swing and tear its arm out at the joint.
"The forward units are dead!" "We need reinforcements!"
But the fort didn't respond. Not because it wouldn't. But because it couldn't.
North Cliff
Back above the battle, Craterhoof and Kindling held their positions. Peter's engineers crouched around the scaffolds, monitoring slope stability and core output. Craterhoof continued lobbing projectiles—mana-charged shells that hit like falling stars.
From below, ten golems were making their way up the cliffside.
"At least they know how to fight," Fornos mused.
He rotated the ring on his finger. A thin pulse of magic ran down his arm.
"Kindling."
The behemoth golem, dormant until now, came to life like an awakening volcano. Its entire body shimmered with embedded enchantments. A thick mana heat haze distorted the air around it.
With a massive groan of effort, it bent forward and shoved both arms deep into the earth. Stones cracked. Roots snapped. A tremor followed as Kindling lifted an entire chunk of the cliff—larger than any golem present—and hurled it down like a titan's wrath.
The airborne slab struck two of the climbing golems head-on, crushing them into the slope. Dust and fragments rained over the others, who staggered back, some losing grip entirely.
"Two down. Eight left."
"Scattershot again," Fornos ordered.
Craterhoof fired another volley. The sky bloomed with glowing streaks of light, crashing onto the advancing enemy below and into the higher terraces.
Back in the Forest
Roa's squad had repositioned behind a ridge of felled logs. Thornjaw continued its rampage, but now the enemy was adapting. Reinforcement golems—bulkier than before—emerged from the western ridge of the forest. They formed a blockade, absorbing Thornjaw's strikes and responding in unison.
"That's not a rabble. That's trained coordination," Roa muttered. "Whoever's leading them knows what they're doing."
Brassheart stepped forward to her side, cannon arm aimed at the treeline.
"Cannon. Mid-arc. Scatter pattern," Roa ordered.
The brass golem discharged. Five streaks of burning light zipped from the barrel, arcing and exploding mid-air above enemy lines. Trees burst into flames. A third of the enemy front staggered.
"Advance!"
Roa's human troops surged forward. With the spores lingering, enemy infantry was still compromised. Her combatants cut them down in close quarters while handlers backed them with precision-guided mini-golems.
Underground—Riverbed Advance
Meanwhile, Aegis-1 and Aegis-2 had reached their designated position. Moving unseen along the riverbed, the heavily-armored golems moved like submerged giants. Water surged and churned above them.
Ross and Mary monitored their progress from a sheltered overlook.
"Holding position," Ross whispered.
Mary tapped a signal rune. "Now we wait for the breach command."
Cliff—Retaliation
The remaining eight golems from the enemy cliff advance had adapted. Three broke formation, trying to flank around Kindling's position. Fornos observed them with interest.
"Peter, inform the rear handlers. Tell them to deploy Smokesplitter and Ironjaw. If they flank, let them find a wall of steel."
Peter nodded and sent a runner.
The battle across the cliffs, the forest, and beneath the river was no longer a simple siege.
It was a three-front war.
But Ash Company had prepared for this.
And Fornos? Fornos smiled beneath his mask.
This was where he thrived.