Snow Storming

The snow golem assault on Westmark continues, but darker forces may be using the attack for nefarious purposes.

35.

Snow Storming

 

The line of golems seemed almost endless and they kept pouring over the top of the south wall and then dropping down into the snow on the other side.   The whole town was in arms, battling the creatures in the knee deep snow that filled the streets.  

“What do they want?”   Alis asked as she followed Sir Aeric through the snow toward several snow golems.   “They don’t seem to have an objective, just attacking us.   They have no hands to take anything, and surely are being controlled by someone.”

Aeric nodded, without taking his eyes off the golems ahead, “Their controllers will be nearby - probably quite a few of them to control this large of a force.  Sharp weapons probably won’t damage these golems much - use a mace or the side of your sword, aim for their legs, to bring them down.”

Alis and the six Paladin recruits with them all nodded, as the eight of them engaged three seven foot tall snow golems that rushed at them.

Aeric, in the lead, squatted down as the first golem approached and swung his mace at the creature’s stubby legs.   The blow took a good chunk of snow out of the leg, but the golem still moved, and swung his stumpy arm at the Paladin.   Aeric deflected the blow with his shield, which sent a shower of snow over him, but also dented the shield from the impact.

Alis aimed her attack at the same golem, but chopped down at the creature’s arm.   Her sword actually cut through the arm of snow and it fell off to the ground.   But the golem swung his other arm at her head.   She ducked quickly and the blow missed, so she got a chop in at his legs, aiming for the same one that Aeric had damaged.  Her chop tore out a bit of the snow from the leg and the golem wobbled a moment, which gave Aeric time enough to slam his mace into the leg again.   The creature fell over hard, and both half-Elves pounced upon it, bringing their weapons against it until it suddenly crumbled into a pile of snow.

 

The Paladin recruits were working on the other two snow golems with some success, though one of the young knights had been knocked down and stepped on by the creature.

Alis and Aeric joined in, working to bring them down, and minutes later all three animated creatures lay crumbled in the snow.

But before they could relish in their accomplishments, six more of the creatures jumped down from the wall into their midst.   These six had assorted pieces of beat-up armor haphazardly strapped to them by their animators to offer their snowy forms some degree of protection.   But more disconcerting were the knives, daggers and short swords embedded in their shapeless arms.  

“Watch them!”  Aeric warned as one Golem swung at him, the row of daggers pressed into the snow of his arm scrapping against the knight’s shield as he deflected the blow. 

From behind, Alis charged the dagger-armed animated construction, using her shield as a battering ram.

She was not stout enough to knock him down, but it got his attention.   The Golem tried to turn to strike her, but she was right behind him, and as soon as he turned, she brought her shield down against the upper part of his right arm, breaking off the arm, which crumbled to the ground.  

Aeric’s mace repeated the blow to the creature’s left arm.   His threat drastically lessened by the loss of his limbs, Alis and Aeric had no trouble taking his legs out from under him, then pounding the torso back to a mound of snow.

 

The Paladin recruits were holding their own, quickly figuring out strategies against the slow, awkward-moving, but strong animated creatures.  One Golem had been armed with a somewhat rusty ball and chain, which it whipped around stiffly, catching one recruit in the side of the head with a glancing blow.   The young man went down with a nasty wound to his head, but he was pulled clear by one of his companions.   Alis rushed over to the unconscious boy.

“By Yesh’s name, be healed!” she said as she touched his head.   There was a slight flash of blue light and the young man’s wound went from serious to minor, though he would be out of commission for some time.

Aeric was already moving against the boy’s assailant, dodging the ball and chain, and then pounding the arm that held the weapon.   After three blows, the arm gave way, but the golem’s other arm caught the half-elf with a clubbing side blow that knocked him backwards into the snow.

Enraged at the sight, Alis leapt on the back of the snow golem, slamming his head with her shield again and again as she held on with her other arm.   The head of the golem fell off suddenly, sending Alis somersaulting over the top of the creature onto her back in the snow.   The golem seemed not to need his snowy head and swung his arm down at her.   The half-elf girl raised her shield over her head just in time to receive the blow.   Her shield dented from the impact, which also broke off part of the beast’s arm.   Alis rolled to her knees, drawing her longsword as she did, and then swinging her sword at his stubby legs.   A chunk of snow fell from the leg, but he still stood, swinging the other stump-like leg at her.   She rolled out of the way and two of the Paladin recruits engaged the creature at that moment, attacking the snow golem’s injured leg until if fell off, sending the golem tumbling over into the snow.

 

Alis rushed over to where Aeric laid and was horrified to see a large rat biting his ear.   Her longsword swung at the rodent, but it scurried away along the wall.

Aeric was just coming to with a moan and she quickly knelt beside him.

“Are you alright?”  She asked, looking at his right ear, which was bleeding slightly from the rat bite.

“My ear hurts… it’s bleeding, I think.”

“A rat was biting on it when you were unconscious.”

“A rat?!  Good heavens!”

“Maybe you should lay hands on yourself.  Rats carry disease.”

“Which a Paladin is immune to.”

Alis breathed a sigh of relief.

“How are we doing?”

“We’re holding our own; your recruits are doing wonderful.”

“I could say the same for you.   Quite impressive.”

“I impressed you with my skill at arms, did I?”  Alis asked, glancing around her.  

“Oh yes.”  The Half-Elf Knight smiled.

“Well, you haven’t seen anything yet!”   She leaned in and kissed him passionately, which he returned with equal passion.   The kiss was brief, however, and she stood up, offering him a hand, which he accepted.

“Come on, love, let’s go smash some snowmen.” 

With that the two rushed in to join the others in the melee.

***

 

A short distance away, King Haroldris led a valiant group of guards and townspeople against a dozen of the snow golems, all of which had been outfitted with old pieces of armor and weapons.   The defenders’ strategy matched that of the Paladins and they were so successful in destroying the creatures that the King ordered the knights who had come with him from King’s Reach to go and assist those battling more of the golems along the eastern walls.

But not long after the knights departed, a very large shape stood up on top of the wall, rising to his full height and causing the King’s group to pause for a moment in surprise.

It was a snow golem, but unlike any of them that they had seen this night.   This golem stood ten feet tall as if someone had tried to sculpt him to look like an Ogre or small Hill Giant.  He wore extensive pieces of plate; shields tied together and then strapped around his form, including his arms and short legs.   The Golem had three arms on each side of his body, each outfitted with ball and chains or flails.  

“Oh, I don’t like the looks of this one.”  Thorm commented to the King from where he stood atop the remains of a snow golem that he had smashed to powder with his large war hammer.  

“He seems better animated then the others.”   Captain Vinth commented at Thorm’s side, “Hopefully he’s the only one.”

“We need to focus in on this one.”   Haroldris said as the golem dropped over the side onto the snowy ground with a slight boom.  

He landed close to where the ducal guards were finishing off an unarmored golem.   Al, Lorren and Sloid immediately broke off from the others and advanced upon the huge golem, trying to spread out in order to attack from each side.

But the golem flexed his left arms with much more speed then the lesser animated creatures, sending three ball and chains whistling through the air.   Al took the blunt of the attack as he held his shield up to protect his head.   One blow tore his shield to shreds, while the other two caught him in the chest and legs.   His chainmail kept the attack from killing him, but he was knocked tumbling sideways in the snow, seriously injured.  

Lorren ran to his defense while Sloid lunged at the creature.

The Golem’s right arms swung out, each holding long spiked flails.   The first two sailed over Sloid’s head, but the third scored a direct hit, the impact sending the guard’s helmet flying.   The man fell down face first in the snow.

 

As Lorren pulled Al out of the creature’s range, Haroldris, Thorm and Vinth moved in.  

The King ran forward, ducking and rolling in the snow as the beast’s ball and chains swung at him.    He stuck at the golem’s armored legs with his Great Sword; his enchanted blade penetrating the armor.   But the blow didn’t go deep enough and the Golem kicked out with his leg, flipping the King up into the air, end over end, into a pile of snow twenty feet away.  

With a roar, Vinth seemed to come out of no-where; leaping up as he brought his great axe down mightily upon the top-most of the golem’s left arms.   The blow would have killed any living creature, for it chopped in deeply between the golem’s shoulder and neck, finding a gap between the plates covering him.

The blow knocked the golem back a few steps, but the ax was embedded deep into the golem and Vinth had to let go and roll out of the way as the creature swung all three left arms at him.   The ball and chains missed the Orc captain, but he was now weaponless and he raced to get out of range of the golem’s weapons.

Around came the creature’s flails, two of them clipping Vinth’s hip and legs as he ran.   The blows sent him tumbling to the left, his plate armor saving him from serious injury.  

Suddenly a large form charged in, running at full force through the deep snow.   It was Lute, his half-Ogre form able to move through the snow quicker than the smaller humans.   The Golem spun and sent the flails flying at Lute, but the half-Ogre threw himself forward, flat down face first in the snow and the flails sailed past.   The Half-Ogre popped out of the snow and lunged forward to scoop the injured Sloid off the ground like an eagle snatching a rabbit.   He tucked the man against his chest and ran full force to get out of range of the golem’s weapons.

But he was not quick enough, and a ball and chain slammed into his back, tearing out flesh.   Yet Lute kept his balance and kept moving, plopping Sloid down at the feet of Siris, who, along with Queen Eioldth ran lightly across the snow to join them.

“Lute!”  Siris called out to her husband, seeing the gaping wound in his mid back.

“Got to get Vinth and The King!”  The Half-Ogre yelled back as he again waded into range of the weapons.   The Snow Golem brought his flails back to strike at the fearless half Ogre, but just as the creature began his strike, he suddenly wobbled on one leg and instead brought the weapons down directly in front of him.   It was Thorm, who had crept around behind the Golem and then quickly moved in front of him, smashing at the beast’s leg furiously with his war hammer.   The golem’s flails were not as damaging at close range, but Thorm took two of the blows and still he smashed away at the golem’s armored leg.  

The golem now swung one of the ball and chains at the dwarf’s head and with a loud clang, one of the spikes penetrated his war helm sending him down.

But his attack had won time for the wounded half-Ogre, who now carried Vinth over his shoulder while he dragged King Haroldris behind him like a rag doll as he rushed out of range of the beast.

“Crazy Dwarf!”  Siris yelled in horror as she saw Thorm go down.

Queen Eioldth motioned for Lute to hurry, “Come on, Lute!  Run!” 

The injured Half-Ogre gritted his teeth and plowed forward, as the golem now moved forward, with a notable limp, toward them.

“Get out of here!   Move, women, move!”  Lute roared to the Queen and Siris as he heard the huge Golem coming toward them.

Queen Eioldth just waved him off and ran in front of him.

“Queen, are you crazy!   You’ll be killed!”  Lute yelled as the Elven lady went by.

The Half-Ogre started to move to block the Queen from advancing further, but she shot him a glance and in a stern voice said, “Get back Lute!  Tend to the injured.”

“But you’ll get-“ Before he could finish, the lady had turned and raised one hand toward the hulking Golem.  The creature raised both sets of arms to slam the puny Elven woman who dared to stand before him.

Suddenly there was flicker of light from the Queen’s hand and she slapped her hand forward as if she was killing a fly against the side of a wall.   All at once a huge ghostly hand appeared and with blinding speed it slapped the snow golem forward and back, slamming him so hard into the side of the town wall that the wall cracked.   The Golem exploded into a pile of snow, the armor pieces and weapons crashing loudly to the ground.  

From all around, everyone stood in awed surprise.   King Haroldris, Lute, Lorren, Al, Vinth; even Thorm popped his bloody head out of the snow to look at the Queen.

Eioldth just shook her head with a smile as she looked at Siris, “Men.”

 

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[Erin Winter]

"Men." Maybe my favorite one-liner ever.