Deep in the mountains, Josline's grandfather let out a sigh of relief. His daughter married a good man. He turned to the other elders, who were all staring at him with anxious eyes, and nodded his head. "We old folks need to hold the line until reinforcements arrive! They are a few thousand while we are only a few hundred. We must use everything at our disposal to hold them back!"
"By your word!" The dwarf elders all yelled out in unison.
On the front lines outside the barrier that had been put up by the dwarves, a massive army of orcs was all lined up in an orderly fashion waiting for the order to strike. Inside the command tent that had been quickly set up, an orc covered in bone jewelry sat in a large seat, looking at the map in front of him. "Not bad. Your drawing skills have gotten better."
"General, you praise me too much. I was only doing what I should. The area here is the entrance. We already broke the illusion, and our front line has already begun the attack on the barrier. Once it falls, we can send in the main force." An orc in armor announced while kneeling on one knee.
In the orc society, the ones with higher status were treated the same as the king. Orcs of lower status would always kneel to the ones with higher status. This transferred over to their military as well. The entire orc race was a militaristic race. A king's reign could easily end if they were not strong enough. There was no such thing as a coup in an orc society. Anyone who wished to challenge the ruler was able to if they felt they were strong enough. Such challenges happen at least five to ten times a year.
Hot blooded orcs would think they were the strongest and wanted to take the place of the king because only by being king could they have the first choice on all the good things. This blinded many who thought they were strong, only to end up with their heads torn from their bodies. There was no letting someone off. Either the king died, or you died. A battle to the death.
As for dwarves, they were a lineage monarchy. The royal family would rule for thousands of years without a change unless one ruler was a tyrant. But this was very rare. Dwarven rulers were usually very sympathetic toward their people. And the elders that sat behind them would always outs a tyrant. This was the elder's main job. Other important issues would also require the elders' approval, such as moving house.
The elves were quite similar, but they did not have an elder council behind the ruler. They had ancestors who would just kill anyone who became a tyrant. That was the only thing they would get involved in kingdom wise unless the race was on the verge of extinction.
As for the dragonic, power was everything. But one needed to have the backing as well. Unless you were a godly existence, there was no way to hold the throne unless you had the backing to do so. It used to be that any dragonic leader could rise up at any time. But now, the strength of those under the royal family would be carefully watched. If one got too powerful, they would be quietly dealt with.
But for the orcs as a warring nation, they liked to swing their weight around and fight to the bitter end. Only those cowardly ones who tried to run would sometimes live to see another day, but most of the time, orcs who turned to run would be killed by their own kind.
"Ready the siege weapons!!" An orc in full body armor yelled out. Machines made of metal and wood were brought forward. They looked like trebuchets you would find in medieval times, but these had multi-colored balls made up of different elements. It was a supercharged ball of elementals that took many mages to create. Its power would be enough to destroy half a small city.
The multi-colored balls were all placed within the trebuchet like siege weapons. But instead of being swung out, these balls were pulled back like a giant slingshot by six orcs, aimed, and then fired with high accuracy at the barrier in front of them. It was like a rain of bombs going off as a whirlwind of power shook the air as they came in contact with the barrier protecting the dwarves.
The barrier shook and flickered before restabilizing itself. The dwarves who were feeding the barrier with magic power were slowly draining mana after resisting such a strike. Some had already collapsed from mana depletion and were out cold. Just to keep the barrier up, they were using everything they had. "Quickly! If you are low on mana, switch out with someone else! Drink the mana potions! We must keep the barrier up! We must hold for time. As long as we can hold, reinforcements will arrive!"
"Yarrh!!!!!!!!" The dwarves all yelled out. Even those who were drained of most of their mana yelled out. They worked as a group going back and forth, changing out those who were almost out of mana and those who were not.
The bombardment on the barrier only had about ten minutes in between reloading. This was vital resting time while everyone tried their best to refresh their mana. "Sir, we are almost out of mana potions…."
"Do what you can. Even if these old bones of mine have to use every last drop of my life, I will do what I can to hold the barrier. If it drops, then our troops will go forth and hold them off. We just need time. Buy us as much time as possible." Josline's grandfather sighed. He looked at the explosions outside that were enough to bring down this entire mountain and wondered if his granddaughter and her husband would make it in time.
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