Hearing the bickering Commander Stan turned to greet them then froze.
"How are you so tall?" He asked while staring at Chronos.
"Hm, I'm not that tall, only 8foot." He replied.
"No, you're a little taller than that now. Maybe 8'3"." Gregory commented.
"What do you mean he's taller now? Growing a full 2 feet is not normal, even for a werewolf. Normally they only grow a few inches when they transform, maybe half a foot. I do not want any surprises right now so why is he so tall?" Commander Stan questioned again.
"I don't know. I've always been taller than the others, Dad thinks it's inherited potential from my mother. Even though she is short." Chronos replied before turning to Gregory. "Don't you dare tell her I said that."
Gregory had a serious look come over his face, "I won't, she scares me just as much as she does you."
"Good, now what are we looking at Commander?" Chronos said, turning his attention back to the village gate.
The gate looked like thick hawthorn vines that had grown straight up and were tied to some large tree branches that connected above them. The only way to get in would be to know the spell that controlled the vines or to destroy them, if they had to destroy them it would not be a simple task.
"Please wait for us to lower them." A voice in broken common spoke from above them.
Looking up they saw a lizardfolk leaning out from one of the large branches.
Chronos replied in vesseth, "We will wait."
Commander Stan turned to him, "I heard that you could speak vesseth, but are you fluent in it? Can I ask you to translate for both sides tonight? Not all of them can speak common and while I understand vesseth I can't speak it."
"Sure, it's always nice to be the first to know what's happening." He said with a smile.
Commander Stan briefly wondered what rumors he would spread later, then the vines came down and he no longer had time to wonder. On the other side of the gate was a naga with four arms that the others showed clear deference to.
"Hello, Elder Matriarch. I hope we aren't too late to help your village." He said as he gave his best salute.
Chronos started translating for those who couldn't understand each other.
"Not late, the attacks became much worse after sunset. At dawn they fiercely attacked us, but during the day they only attacked sporadically and tried to prevent others from reaching us. I apologize for the crowded conditions; we have taken in every tribe near here in an attempt to hold off the dark beasts." She spoke while welcoming them into the village.
The village was made of rammed earth houses shaped like a dome, and the larger trees had suspended housing hanging from their larger branches. There were several larger buildings in the center of the village with herb gardens surrounding them, however the gardens had all been picked clean and there were wooden barricades erected between the buildings. In the distance Chronos could see broken pillars from a ruined temple that didn't look like they belonged in the swamp.
"Must be an ancient temple." He thought.
As the army walked inside, they saw nagas and lizardfolk everywhere. Every house had 10 people to a room and there were even people sleeping on the branches of trees. Just walking through the village, you would have to be careful not to step on someone's tail by accident.
"Are the dark beasts really so hard to fight that everyone needed to gather?" Commander Stan asked.
"No, individually they are not hard to fight but throughout last night and today we have seen the same beasts repeatedly. They have some method to return from the dead, and we have yet to find a way to stop them from returning. On top of that a tear formed in our village this morning that spawned beasts inside the village. We managed to seal it after taking losses, but the village square is now forbidden until we can get rid of it for good." She said, gesturing to an open space between the buildings.
The leadership of both sides was gathered together and met in front of the village square. in the middle of the square was a tree that looked like it was formed from vines twined around each other. They extended from the top of the tree to the edges of the square where a number of totems were driven into the ground. The vines pulsed randomly with light that went down them before transferring into the totems and fading to nothing.
"I see, what are the current defenses of the village?" Commander Stan asked.
"Outside the walls we are growing as much hawthorn as we can and trying to create small poisonous swamps, but the swamp creation is being cancelled by the dark nagas. All of the outer wall has been destroyed and rebuilt at least once; this makes it weak as it is new growth, if it had time to age it would be stronger.
Inside the wall we have a small moat that we have filled with poisonous vines under the assumption that the wall will be broken and the upper walkways are all 2 meters from the wall. Inside the houses we have been digging escape paths to take the children away from here but with all the fighting the tunnels don't go very far yet.
Originally, we had nearly 4000 warriors but after fighting all day many of our warriors are injured or crippled, those that can still fight number less than 1000. I don't believe we can hold on much longer without help." The village Matriarch deeply sighed as she gave her report.
"I see, I have brought 750 men with me, and more will be arriving here by tomorrow morning. There are no intact villages from here to the church and we left messages at each one we passed. For now, my priests will treat as many of the injured as they can. My and the second orders paladin's will start patrolling the surrounding swamp to kill any beasts we find in order to prevent another tide like when we arrived from forming, if things get rough, we will retreat to the village and fight them off here. I hope five hundred paladins fighting in the woods is enough to distract them until morning. Once more troops arrive, we can see about driving them out of Dracon Fen." Commander Stan decided after deliberating for a few minutes.
The village matriarch chose to trust the commander's combat experience as he had saved many of the swamp's tribes over the years.
Turning to Chronos, Commander Stan asked him, "Have you ever organized a camp's defense before?"
"Yes, but not on this scale."
"That's fine." He ordered Chronos, "You'll stay in the village along with the mercenaries and reinforce their defenses. Check how many supplies they have left and establish a connection with the church, also have Sariah lead the other mages in casting a barrier over the village. It's fine if she sleeps till morning after that."
"If your paladins become tired you can switch out with the knights. They might not be as effective as paladins, but I think the nagas can make a potion to give them night vision."
"We can." Replied the matriarch.
With their plans made the meeting was adjourned and they went to fulfill their tasks. Chronos took stock of the supplies and was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the fleeing villages were able to bring food and herbs with them. Many of their weapons were dull from constant combat but they could be sharpened within an hour.
There were also many potions prepared that hadn't been used yet. The healing potions were nearly gone but he found a number of swampstep potions and grave-reed toxin which he had delivered to Commander Stan immediately. In addition to that he handed out will-o-wisp potions to be used around the village, the dark beasts didn't like the light, and it may even weaken them.
The priests rapidly moved to treat all of the less injured warriors however it would be sometime for all of them to be combat ready again. There were also over 1000 who were too badly injured to fight and would need a great deal of time or a surgery to recover. Amongst the nagas and lizardfolk were 5 individuals with strength in the fourth rank but one of the nagas had to maintain the seal in the village square at all times.
This left them with 3 rank four lizardfolk warriors, 1 rank four naga shaman, Captain who was rank three and in an emergency 2 rank three knights as the strongest people in the village. The other strong individuals would be leading the paladins through the woods.
Once he had all the numbers, he went to see Commander Stan before he left.
"Here is what we have available. I have ordered will-o-wisp potions to be spread around the village and will have the priests try to bless the light as an extra barrier." Chronos reported
"Un good, we will keep them away from the village to the best of our ability but be ready for an attack just in case." Seeing Chronos nod he turned to his men to give a final order, "Our only goal is to slow the enemy down and cause confusion amongst them. Do not engage if you are vastly outnumbered or overpowered. Keep moving and make them guess how many of us there really are. Let's go."
"Yes, sir." Came the resounding cry.