Once everyone was divided up as they needed to be, and plans for each arm of the attack were disseminated and finalized, the adventurers split up into their respective groups and moved into position for the attack.Jack was placed in charge of his wing of the a.s.sault, and would be accompanied by Rose, as well as the gnome and half-orc duo of Jemeni and Rezza he"d met a couple days earlier. He"d also be accompanied by a trio of young men, each of whom bore a striking resemblance to each other. Based on their age range, they were probably siblings. None of them spoke, and when Jack inquired as to why, the oldest of the three opened his mouth to point to a complete absence of a tongue. Finding himself suddenly disinterested in knowing anymore, Jack nodded and told them to whistle if they needed his attention. The eldest one nodded, and showed he understood by shoving his first two fingers in his mouth and whistling loudly.
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Once everyone was in position, it was determined that the a.s.sault would be signaled by a fire arrow shot from the center formation. Farlo insisted on doing the honors. Once the arrow was in the air, the center would march first, followed by the flanks. The center would try and draw most of the attention while the flanks set about their tasks.
Jack sat impatiently waiting for the sign, finding himself increasingly stir-crazy and restless the longer he waited. Jemeni and Rezza watched him with amused expressions as he paced back and forth. The two of them seemed completely non-chalant about the whole situation, with Rezza cleaning under her nails with the pointed end of a piece of straw while Jemeni sat on her shoulder and played with a small toy of some sort, trying to land a ball connected to a string onto a narrow circular platform it was attached to.
Rose said nothing as she sat with her eyes closed, breathing rhythmically. Out of everyone in his little band, she seemed the most focused on the task at hand. As he watched her, a small b.u.t.terfly flitted by, before landing gently on the end of her nose. She did not move or alter her breathing, but just gently opened one of her eyes. When she saw it, the corner of her mouth turned into a smile and she closed her eye again, seeming very pleased with herself.
Jemeni pointed into the air behind Jack"s head, and when Jack turned, he saw that the signal had been sent.
"Alright then. Let"s do this." He said. more to himself than anyone else. And, as if by instinct, he drew Harrowbloom from its sheath.
As the blade left the scabbard and settled into the palm of his hand, a sudden sense of calm and focus overtook him, as if his nerves had been replaced by someone else"s. He was suddenly aware of his body in a way he hadn"t been before. He could feel the the faint bit of moisture in his palm from his sweat, the faintest tickle of the wind through the tips of his hair. But most of all, the blade in his hand felt alive, as if it were an extension of his arm. As he gently slid the tip of the blade through the air, he could sense the faint bit of resistance from the air itself, where it most and least resisted, how it affected the balance of the blade. He could acutely and instinctively tell when the blade"s edge alignment for a stroke wasn"t exactly precise.
The amount of information he felt pouring into his senses from the weapon overwhelmed him. It was as if every single sense in his body had been wound up to the maximum.
He felt... powerful.
And just like that, his restlessness was gone.
He motioned for Rose and the rest to follow him, and walked methodically up the crest and down the hillside towards the gnoll camp in the distance. Looking to his left, he saw that the center had already pulled ahead, the huddled group of shield-bearers in the center, surrounded on all sides by the motley a.s.sortment of gathered fighters, rangers, rogues, and other adventurers.
Looking the thousand feet or so ahead in the distance, the once relatively calm atmosphere of the gnoll camp was now alive with activity. Bodies were already mounting the archer towers, and a large contingent of the defenders were already ama.s.sing and sallying forth. Somehow, it looked as thought their numbers had grown even more since they"d inspected the camp not an hour beforehand. This was going to be hard-fought.
The center reached the defenders outside of the defensive perimeter first. Jack couldn"t help but think that the clashing of the two forces sounded less like the battles he"d watch in movies and more like a bunch of toddlers wrestling in a cupboard full of metal pans. Directly ahead of their small flanking group, a dozen or more gnolls loomed in the distance, moving at an angle to intercept them as they split further and further from the main body ofthe attack.
As they drew closer, he could hear Jemeni cackling gleefully from atop Rezza"s shoulder, followed by the mechanical clack of the crossbow c.o.c.king. As soon as they were in range, Jemeni fired his first shot, knocking one of the gnolls clean off its feet as the bolt slammed through its snout. The gnoll giggled even harder as he went to reload again, and Rezza roared as she sprinted the final hundred or so feet into the gathered gnoll defenders.
Jack followed in after, Rose close to his side, as they waded into the gnoll flank.