Chapter 067: Surprise Attack

What just happened?

Jess wanted to look down over the wall, but doing that would obviously be dangerous.

An apprentice had been dragged away without making a sound. What chance did a mere assistant like him have?

Who had attacked Martin? Orcs?

Unlikely. The Blackrock orcs were busy fighting the Dark Iron dwarves in northern Redridge. If a force of them had crossed the Burning Steppes and entered the Redridge valley, Lakeshire's militia patrols would surely have spotted them first.

As things stood, there shouldn't be any army in Redridge bold enough to attack a castle, apart from the occasional wandering orc like that shaman.

That left the gnolls. It couldn't have been murlocs, could it?

The local gnolls belonged to the Darkhide tribe, the darkest and most savage tribe anywhere in the Kingdom of Stormwind. If it was them, should Jess run inside the keep or defend the watchtower?

Stonewatch had four watchtowers of different sizes, counting the one he was standing on. Torches carried by sentries still burned in the other towers. This central tower, above the keep, was the only one without a guard tonight.

Before Jess could decide what to do, a strange snickering sounded behind him.

He turned. A tuft of dirty brown-black fur rose above the wall, followed by a dog's head. Swollen, dull-yellow eyes stared straight at him.

The gnoll spotted Jess and cried, "Ha! Human meat!"

No choice. He had to hold the tower!

Jess gripped his staff, rushed forward, and smashed it against the gnoll's skull. With a yelp, the creature lost its grip and fell off the wall.

Jess had barely sighed with relief when an iron hook shot up with a clang, almost catching his neck. He stepped back. The hook scraped across his ribs, leaving a bloody line, then caught firmly on the stone battlements. A chain began shaking beneath it.

Gnolls knew how to scale walls with grappling hooks?

The hooks were enormous and studded with spikes. And the lines weren't hemp rope—they were iron chains!

They had to be orc siege equipment. After the Horde's defeat, supplies had been abandoned here, and the gnolls had found or stolen them to use against human walls.

Jess grabbed a rusty longsword from a nearby weapons rack and tried to pry the hook loose. He hadn't expected it to be set so firmly. Worse, gnolls had begun climbing the chain, their weight dragging the hook even tighter into the stone.

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He finally managed to move it a little when an iron blade suddenly rose from below and struck his sword. The shock numbed both hands. As he tried to pry again, the gnoll holding the blade sprang up the chain and slashed sideways at him.

Jess ducked awkwardly and retreated.

This gnoll was shorter than he was. Its fur was much darker than that of the gnolls in Elwynn, and its body was covered in spots. Its arms and legs looked almost skin and bone. It seemed even more crazed and cunning than the others.

It clearly didn't take Jess seriously. It charged with an excited howl. Jess stepped aside from its heavy overhead blow and thrust his sword into the thick mane around its neck.

The gnoll's howl stopped with a wet choking sound. Whimpering and shaking, it fell to the ground, rolled a few times, and couldn't get back up.

Jess finally understood: this was a gnoll ambush. But Stonewatch's main force had already left through the gate to hunt the supposed gnoll dark mage.

Had they been lured away on purpose?

He snatched up a torch and waved it toward the watchtower on the other side, shouting, "Gnoll attack! The gnolls are attacking!"

He shouted for quite a while before noticing the figures outlined by the torches on the other tower.

Those hunched shadows were all gnolls.

The sentries there had already been killed!

Chaos was spreading through Stonewatch. Metal clanged. People screamed. Soldiers roared, and gnolls shrieked. It was already too late to warn everyone inside the fortress.

He needed to call the cavalry back from the forest immediately.

But even if Stonewatch had been quiet, shouting toward the trees wouldn't have done any good. Surely there had to be a horn or bell for raising the alarm?

Jess remembered seeing messengers carrying horns when he entered the keep. Where were they now?

There was no horn in this little tower atop the fortress, no bonfire or anything else that could make an obvious signal. Only his torch.

What if he threw it into the sky?

As he fumbled for a solution, another gnoll leaped onto the wall, waving an axe and giggling like an idiot.

No. Staying here would only mean getting overwhelmed by more and more gnolls.

Jess wasn't even in a position to handle two enemies at once. So far, the attackers had all been small fry. If a stronger warrior climbed up, he could be in real trouble.

He had to get back to his room, find his warlock bag, and let the imp out.

Wait. The imp!

Of course. Saeno could throw fireballs. He could shoot them into the sky like signal flares!

The gnoll swung its axe. It wasn't particularly strong, and the weapon looked like an enormous orc axe, far too heavy for its wielder.

Jess easily dodged. The axe crashed into the stonework, leaving the gnoll off balance. Jess drove his sword straight through its narrow waist from behind.

With a hoarse whine, the creature toppled off the battlement and hit the lower wall with a solid thud.

Several gnolls now crowded the spot where Martin had stood. They were hammering at a nail-studded wooden door. So that was where the irritating clanging had been coming from.

The noise was so loud that none of them had noticed Jess fighting their companions overhead. Even the gnoll that had fallen almost on top of them hadn't caught their attention.

"Saeno!"

Jess called the name in a confused, hurried voice. He didn't really expect the imp to hear him. If he shouted loudly enough, he'd attract all the gnolls below, and then he'd be finished.

Dealing with them one at a time as they climbed up might keep him alive a little longer.

As he thought, he heard claws scraping stone behind him.

Another gnoll climbed up carrying two short axes. The moment it found its feet, it began howling and swinging them about like a circus performer.

Jess's mind filled with the lessons Gred had drilled into him.

Keep your distance. Point the tip of your sword at the enemy.