It would have been a massacre if the dwarves did not, out of habit, build their siege-works to account for enemies at their rear. Instead of slamming into the spike covered berms the cavalry force wheeled aside, racing along the fortifications. The gunners took a horrible toll on them, but each cavalryman had a light repeating crossbow and as they passed along the dwarven lines they emptied them as fast as they could fire before wheeling away to reload. The light, un-aimed quarrels individually weren't much to worry about, but the dwarven gunners were showered with them and inevitably, by blind luck and sheer weight of numbers, they were having an effect.
If the cavalry can take the beating long enough, Engvyr thought, then they can peel away just as their infantry arrives to hit the earthworks. That's going to get ugly in a hurry…
Once they were well clear of the battle with the cavalry, the rangers turned and forded the river and rode into the dwarven camp, right up to the canopy where the dwarven commanders were directing the battle, shouting to alert them to the approaching infantry.
The commanders immediately dispatched two of the rangers to get the supply train to move south, away from the battle on the flank. Two more were sent to the infantry to the north with instructions to reorient the defensive works to face the flank attack. Engvyr and Taarven were sent to find the commander of the 4th Heavy Infantry, the unit the cavalry was engaging, and tell them to prepare to pull back.
They rode their sweating ponies across the camp and dismounted, leaving them. They jogged between the berms and into the trenches, working their way towards the fight. Before they got to their destination they had to borrow shields to hold overhead against the rain of quarrels. Engvyr and Taarven found the commanders in a dugout crudely roofed with logs and gave them the order to begin pulling back.
The officers consulted briefly then came back to the rangers.
“Tell command we'll need support from the Battlemages; something to allow us to break off without getting hammered. We'll blow retreat when we need them, but we’re going to be in real trouble if they aren't ready.”
“Battlemages standing by when you blow retreat. Got it.” Engvyr said.
“Give us a quarter hour if you can,” Taarven told him as they ducked out of the shelter under their borrowed shields and raced away down the trench. They made it back unscathed and relayed the request. Other runners were sent to the Battlemages and the two rangers were instructed to grab some food and take a breather. There was half a cold ham, some cheese and bread in the command post and they munched on that while they rested.
“Here we go,” said one of the officers after a few minutes and moved into position to view the battle on the northern flank. Some of the other officers joined him and the two rangers came with them, pulling out their own spyglasses.
The cavalry had just come back for another pass, this time with their infantry at their heels to hit the dwarven lines as soon as they had softened them up with another hail of quarrels. The retreat sounded and as the oncoming cavalry began to fire, their mounts suddenly found themselves charging headlong into knee-deep mud. The results were catastrophic as ulvgaed went down en masse and those following crashed into them. Volleys slashed into the suddenly stationary cavalry. The ulvgaed, panicked, snapped at and trampled each other. The floundering beasts and goblins blocked their own infantry from advancing.
The dwarves of the 4th Regiment rose from the trenches and performed a fighting retreat, each rank firing a volley then moving back. The cavalry was massacred wholesale, their bodies forming a temporary obstacle to the infantry following them. The 4th moved behind the newly reoriented flank defenses and were ready to resume fire well before the Baasgarta infantry could close with them.
“I thought that might come in handy,” an officer said, “I've had the mages working on it ever since the cavalry came into view.”
Engvyr nodded. He was familiar with Battlemages and their uses from his time in the regiments. Big effects like this had to be used sparingly lest the mages 'burn out' from fatigue; if that happened they would be useless for hours or even days.
The day wore on and the battle seemed stalled along the front, neither side able to gain a concrete advantage. The battle on the northern flank however, was not going as well. The cavalry's repeated attacks had weakened the 4th, and they were slowly being pushed back as the day wore on.
One thing that seemed to be in their favor was that the Baasgarta either weren't using their battlemages or they didn't have any. Late in the afternoon one of the command staff, a captain, approached the rangers.
“I need you to go talk to the battlemages, see if they can detect any workings on the Baasgarta side. I'm starting to get the feeling they're saving them for something particularly nasty. Also ask them if they have any sense what has happened to Eastern Force; we need them and they should be here by now.”
They found the Battlemages a little down the slope from the command post. Many of them sat or stood, eyes closed. Some were resting, the others… well who knew what they might be doing? Catching the attention of a mage that didn't seem busy at the moment they motioned him over and explained the commander's concerns.
The mage frowned and said, “There’s definitely some magery going on over there.”
He indicated the city with a jerk of his head.
“It's deep inside the city though, and it's focused there, not out here. We've been trying to suss it out but it's different than anything we've dealt with before. I don't know what we should be expecting but I doubt we'll like it. As for Eastern Force, well, hang on a few minutes and we'll try to see what's what.”
He went over to a group of the standing mages and interrupted them with a touch on the sleeve. He spoke to them, gesturing to the rangers and then to the command area. They nodded and they all moved into a circle and closed their eyes. Engvyr looked at Taarven, who shrugged. After a few minutes the mage returned.
“Eastern Force is going to be late,” he told them, “The Baasgarta apparently broke a dam in one of the branch valleys and the flooding has slowed them down. I'm not sure how bad it was but I doubt we can expect them before midnight.”
The rangers relayed this to the commanders.
“This is not good,” Colonel Oakes said. He was the leader of the 3rd rifles and in overall command. “They're still pushing us back from the north, and they've brought their reserve to bear there as well. If something doesn't happen soon they're going to roll us up.”
They'll break the siege, Engvyr thought, and if they push us out of the fixed defenses it's going to get ugly fast. The truth was that they had gone into this fight outnumbered more than two to one. Generally when attacking you wanted to out-number the enemy, but the dwarves had been forced into the fight before the remainder of their army could get there. Their superior training, discipline and weapons might still have carried the day, but with the forces that the Baasgarta had brought down from the north they were now outnumbered at least four to one.
Engvyr and Taarven were sent forward again, this time to see how the 4th was holding up. They had much less far to travel this time. The situation, they found, was desperate.