KoW: Ambush / 995 points / Bulldog / Twilight Kin Win
Arlantrix rubbed her head, her hand coming away bloodied as she used the nearby wall to steady her attempt to stand. Groggy from what must have been a near fatal blow she struggled to recall what sequence of events had lead her to this point. As she gazed around the battlefield littered with the bodies of her kin the memories started to come back to her.
The mission had started well enough when her forces had discovered the magical artifact, a small statuette of some sort of dog. She merely needed to make sure it was transported back to her camp safely without it being taken by those blasted Dwarves. There must be a traitor in the camp or some devilish magic at work as every time she made a discovery they turned up to try and steal it. Well this time she'd made sure they would find that no easy task. She'd summoned and bound a Fleshripper from the Void and had the artifact sewn inside it's flesh, it could easily be recovered once back at camp.
Then on the journey back the stench of the Abyssal Dwarves had once again assaulted her nostrils and suddenly they'd appeared on the battlefield. But by some stroke of fortune they'd misjudged their march and appeared over to the left of the Kin's force so she'd been able to dispatch a small flying force to hold them up whilst the main force had continued it's march.
At first it had gone well with her flying Phantoms and Goredrake occupying most of the attention of the Dwarves. Arlantrix remembered peering across the battlefield to see volleys of fireballs and decimator fire being thrown against her holding force, seemingly with minimal effect.
However the superior numbers of the Dwarves eventually told and first the Phantoms and then a little later the Goredrake fell to the grotesque monstrosities birthed in some Abyssal pit.
Her main force had pushed on whilst this happened but disaster had struck, whilst clearing out a screen of Gargoyles a regiment of Impalers had been overcome with bloodlust and rushed off ahead. For once Arlantrix missed the presence of Zor'damos, whilst she may have been trying to steal the credit from Arlantrix, the Captain of the Heartseeker was an excellent warrior and kept her crew in order.
This over eagerness had led the Impalers to expose their flank to a mob of shambling Golems and the results were not far from where Arlantrix now stood, throbbing head in hand. Their dismembered bodies littered the ground and had been stamped into the earth by the heavy feet of the earth-born Golems.
Fortunately she still had some of the crew to hand to steady the line and as the now unopposed Dwarves from the left flank started to join the fight she'd been able to feed them into the line. At first it had gone well with her Kin holding the Golems and even routing a unit of Blacksouls.
That had changed though when the Dwarven ranged units had arrived and her corsair kin and then the remaining Impalers where killed in a deluge of fireballs and decimator rounds. But all this death was not in vain as the Fleshripper had been safe all this time and took advantage of the confusion to escape off towards the waiting ships.
And now Arlantrix could recall why she had a bloodied head and had awoken slumped behind the wall in the dark. As the Fleshripper had escaped and that idiot Sycorax had chased after it in vain another Dwarven monstrosity had appeared. Seemingly a fusion of machine and Dwarf it had charged straight at her and clobbered her over the head. Fortunately it turned out to be as stupid as it was ugly and rather than finish the job it had lost interest as soon as she's fallen behind the wall.
Well, Arlantrix thought, I'm still alive and the artifact will be safely waiting for me, I'll call that a win.
After brushing herself down she setoff for the walk back to the ships landing place.
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