The army of the five divisions was laying waste to the hands of Carthax as the wall desperately tried to hold itself together while trying to push back the enemy army's advance. Sadly for the hands of Carthax, this was an effectively impossible task, as it had used up most of its ammunition of stones to try and crush the constantly moving winter red bulls that were attacking it with berry birds, and now with the five siege engines digging into it with constant fire, it had finally used up the last of its ammunition trying to crush the siege weapons and failing to do so.
Now the hands of Carthax's only methods of defending itself were its worms made of skin and teeth and its tentacles that were made out of flesh and fur. It had reabsorbed its catapults, using the material to try and repair as much of its damaged sections as it could. Though even with the fresh repairs, the still constant fire made it clear the hands of Carthax were on borrowed time. Not that it cared about its continued existence, as it was an undead construct; as such, it had no concept of the fear of death, though it did have the concept of failure, which it was trying to avoid at all costs.
The army of Detrei could almost taste the first victory of the siege of Carthax as the hands of Carthax were about to fall. That's when tragedy struck and a major truth of war was revealed to the Detreons as they found out why an army had a general instead of a council of commanders. As one of the duties of a general was to make sure the different forces of an army didn't get in each other's way.
The tragedy began with the many heads of beast shrub being blinded by friendly fire from Tako's golden cloud as Tako had lost himself to his sadistic urges, trying to inflict as much pain and damage as possible on the hands of Carthax as he could. He hadn't noticed how close his acid fire was getting to Faro's shrub beast. So the shrub beast was blinded by accidental bombardment and was unable to heal while the acid was still burning into its face and was now charging in random directions in a pained blind fury.
Faro was unable to regain control of his siege weapon no matter how much he screamed and throttled in roots trying to get its attention. As the poor shrub beast was in far too much pain from the constant acid burn to pay attention to anything else. So the beast went wild and began slamming into everything within reach of its many serpent heads without thought of whether it was hitting enemies or allies.
Eventually, the shrub beast rampage reached Retero and his men, who were trying to maintain their formation despite the constant strikes from the longest flesh tentacles of the hands of Carthax. So focused was Retero's division on the wall and its attempts to stop their constant attack of fools nectar that they didn't notice several of the shrub beasts heads blindly charging at them until they were sent flying.
As even Retero himself, along with whole sections of his division, were sent flying, flipping over and over before they finally stopped and were left lying flat, their only sign of life their groans of pain. Retero and his men were only alive thanks to the Oriole wall absorbing most of the impact, though it had caused the Oriole wall to fall down. Which meant the last barrage of fools nectar that Retero fired ended up going into the sky instead of at the wall.
This only added to the disaster that had been unfolding as this latest barrage of fools nectar hit the petal gliders as they were making another run at the hands of Carthax. They were in no way ready for the sudden friendly fire that was sent their way, and so most were shot down, including their commander, Greco, as they suddenly found parts of their pedal gliders exploding into glowing golden flowers.
The fliers under Greco lost all control, and as if guided by Hargal himself, they divided into two groups that crash-landed into Nero and Tako's forces separately, doing massive damage. As many in both Nero and Tako's forces were trying to figure out where Greco's forces would crash land, only to find out too late it would be among them. Soon enough both divisions found themselves being driven into the ground by Greco's out-of-control petal gliders.
As those three divisions were taking each other out in one massive accident, Faro's had decided to do the one thing he probably should have done earlier but didn't. This was because you usually weren't supposed to decapitate your pets, much less your most powerful war beast, but that's exactly what Faro did. He quickly chopped into the base of the neck where all the serpent heads had sprouted from and quickly cut them down with his strength as well as his skill with a scythe.
Soon enough after the acid-covered heads had been cut off, the shrub beast grew new ones in its shrub hydra mode. Though by this point the damage had already been done as the players and animals that made up the still-standing army looked at the four shattered divisions in shock. Somehow both beast and man were united in their shock at such a colossal disaster.
Faro's thought was not in shock; he was rallying his men as he realized the danger. As he knew with the commanders of the other divisions down along with most of their men, the army now found itself not only not on the verge of its first victory but incredibly vulnerable to counterattack from the hands of Carthax.
"Players to the front defend the downed divisions. The rest of you help the Catacomb Smashers evacuate the injured to the back. Well, you winter red bulls press the attack." Faro shouted out so his orders could be heard across the battlefield, making sure the army righted itself as quickly as possible before the hands of Carthax made their move.
Luckily for Faro's, the winter red bulls and Catacomb Smasher obeyed without hesitation, as they always would, and the players were too shocked at the change of situation to really think about questioning his orders as they ran to be in front of the defeated divisions in small gaggles of mismatched groups. Quickly Faro's division had split into four groups as they made their way over to the downed men and put them two at a time to the back of a catacomb smasher, who would then quickly run a safe distance away from the reach of the hands of Carthax.
Though with most of the force now incapacitated, the army was no longer able to attack as much the wall as before. So the hands of Carthax were able to pull more from damaged sections that weren't currently under attack to defend from ones that were putting the winter red bulls in a bad spot as the only active force attacking the hands of Carthax. Well, Faro's kept his shrub beast, the last active siege weapon, in reserve in case the walls tried something.
As it turns out, he was right to do so. Soon enough, the giant skeletal hands that had tossed aside the earlier charge from the catacomb smashers and winter red bulls were now coming off the wall and were now charging towards where the broken divisions were being evacuated. Each downed division was getting two giant hands heading straight for them at rapid speed.
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The catacomb smasher moving the wounded was unable to countercharge with their wounded cargo on their backs. Even those Catacomb smashers not moving wounded were tasked with defending the wounded so they could not engage in case a threat came from another direction, leaving the wounded vulnerable while they were changing the hands.
So the players with their strange mismatched armor and weapons that were made from different plant seeds would have to hold off the giant skeletal hands charging their way towards them. As the different player groups tried to get into some type of loose formation to better handle the charge of the skeletal hands. Mark found himself at the head of one such loose formation. He took in the strange giant hand that was headed straight for them and began getting its stats as he prepared for its charge.
"Well, I guess it's time for another suicidal duel. Hopefully Faro won't get on me for this one since he technically ordered it this time." Mark muttered to himself as he bared Foxe's teeth and charged at one of the two finger tanks charging his group, hoping to take it down by himself and let the others take the other one with their numbers, not really knowing what their armor and weapons did. Since each player's weapon and armor were unique to them, considering how they were made in the first place.
As Mark tried to close the distance, his hopes were dashed when the finger tank bore down on him instead. The finger tank quickly went for a killing blow, bringing its pointer finger down to try and pierce Mark dead center in his chest. Mark, not waiting to see if his armor green heart could really be his new heart, managed to dodge out of the way. He brought Fox's teeth around, swinging it to the side, and with its ability to sharpen grain, it was able to slice through the finger tank's thumb with ease, causing it to lean on its pinkie for stability.
Though Mark quickly regretted this action as it was now unbalanced and couldn't move forward, so the finger tank well remaining on it pinky brought its other three fingers to bear against Mark. Who quickly found himself bobbing and weaving, trying not to be pierced by the three giant bone fingers that were more like bone spears.
Eventually, after Mark had gained several deep gashes from the finger tank, he was finally able to pull himself back and cause the finger tank to overreach with its piercing fingers. This allowed Mark to once again, with a sweep of Foxe's teeth, take off the fingers from the finger tank, though instead of one like last time, it was three, and with its pinkie now pinned under it. Mark's opponent, the finger tank, was crippled and put out of the fight.
"Well, would you look at that? I'd fight in a duel and not die by the end of it. Won't Faro be proud?" Mark said in a slight, gasping wheeze as he tried to catch his breath. If you asked Mark how long that fight with the finger tank had gone on, he'd tell you over an hour, but in reality it had only been a few minutes. Though that's how battles usually worked, what felt like hours was usually only a few minutes; he was starting to remember that.
Mark looked around and saw the other players were watching him as they had ganged up on the other tanks and quickly overwhelmed them. Which meant after they had smashed the other finger tanks, they simply enjoyed Mark's duel as he bobbed and weaved around its blows before cutting it down.
As Mark was taking in the fact he'd made himself effectively entertainment for the rest of the players with his duel, he began to notice Faro looking at him. Mark began to realize taking on one of the finger tanks one-on-one probably wasn't what he had in mind. He also began to realize that his excuse that Faro hadn't said not to have a one-on-one duel to defend the downed divisions might not work, and he might be looking forward to punishment later.
Likely for Mark, though, Faro had bigger fish to fry, as he needed to press his advantage with the hands of Carthax sending out its literal hands, and losing them, the gates were now vulnerable, and with most of the army out of action, he needed to press the advantage before enemy reinforcements came and pinned them against the walls.
"Shrub beast, tear down that gate! All players follow behind me." Faro commanded in a bellowing voice as he began to charge behind the snake heads of his siege weapon, leaving behind his division to protect the wounded along with the catacomb smashers. While the red winter bulls rest and build back up their stores of nutrients to full, then they will lay siege with their berry birds again. So Faro's total combined forces were himself and all the players following him towards the gate.
Which was swiftly brought down by the combined effort of all the hydra heads of the shrub beast. This was easy for the shrub beast, considering the hands of Carthax had spent all it had at this point. So Faro and the players went charging into the breach. While the shrub beast stayed where it was as a rear guard.
"While Robert, it looks like there were several upsets in that little drama down at Carthax." Simon said, excitement filling his static voice, making it a bit hard to understand. Though Robert couldn't blame Simon for figuring all this out, the upset would keep people on the edge of their chairs, which is good for ratings. Which always makes for a happy and excited Simon in Robert's short experience.
Robert had been watching the battle as Simon had gotten his attention once the finger tanks had been brought out. This was an unexpected upset, which Simon said he would tell him about. Luckily, Robert was already making decent progress on the expansion, so he wasn't as worried about his progress as before. "Yes, it was a bit of a back and forth. Luckily for us, they're on to the next part of the siege, so we won't have to worry too much about there being too many more upsets." Robert said in a normal voice, not as depressed as he was before, as he was able to process the battle as work rather than as a battle between his children's creation.
"Well, now we can have a few more upsets to keep it interesting." Simon said there was a spark of hope in his voice at the thought of more upsets to boost ratings. Robert just rolled his eyes and focused back on the monitor. "Well then, I guess I got your opinion. Well, it's time to go back to the show anyway." Simon said as he too focused back on the monitor.
