"They're back there all right," said the Chaos Champion.

"How can you be so sure?" asked the sweating mage from atop his mount.

Seth Garrick smirked, shook his head, and gave a loud whistle. A huge warrior with long shaggy dreadlocks and heavily smoked quartz spectacles moved out of the thick foliage surrounding them, dragging a bloody bag along the ground next to him. When he reached the pair, he dropped the bag, and took out an extremely large, horribly noxious smelling cigar, and puffed it alight.

"Yah mon."

"Show him." said the champion.

The warrior chuckled, and tossed the bag forward. Small quills stuck out of every part of it, making it look a little like a hedgehog. That morning at breakfast it had been a scout named Bill. Now it was so heavily poisoned not even the flies would touch it. "Everything crash, bwaaay. We colt the game, yah no see it? Posse faddah back, Captain. Nuttin' nah go right. Is just pure almshouse a gwaan. Yah, dey not be stoppin' till they gets back what's they's, mon."

"That's enough, Smoke."

The silenced warrior stood with the pair a moment longer, seeming to savor the putrid smoke of his cigar. "No cup no broke, no coffee no dash wey, hey mon? Skankin'skank."

"What the hell was all that?" demanded the mage after the warrior had moved away.

Seth sighed. ""Smoke said we didn't cover our tracks properly. The lizards are behind us, a large bunch and they're not going give up. They'll take us when we load the ships, if not before. Big Smoke thinks if we act now, this little expedition might not be a total disaster." The warrior looked pointedly at the three large wagons being hauled through the dense flora by teams of oxen. Without them slowing the Chaos warband down, escape without conflict might still be possible.

"My apologies Mr. Garrick, but we have not come all this way simply to leave the fruits of our labors behind."" snarled the mage. "The ships are only a half day further north, and then we're free of this pestilential pit." He paused to slap a biting fly. "The lizardmen pursue? Fine. Wheel your men about and deal with them. The wagons will continue north. Catch up after you're done."

The magi wheeled and rode off.

Seth gritted his teeth. Bloody useless trinket-loving mages would get him killed one day. He whistled again. Big Smoke moved from his resting-place and stood in front of his General.

"Get the men moving."" he ordered. ""We need an open spot to do some killing."

Big Smoke chuckled. "Dat clearin'' we passed 'bout 'n hour back. She's an Irie likkle place, hah? Yah mon, been tinkin' bout it all de while."

Seth considered. It was nearby, open, with few trees and only a couple of low hills. Better than this green soup they'd been pushing through. "Get us there, Smoke."

The Battle Standard Bearer let out a big rolling laugh. "Skankin'' skank, Captain. Babylon, we take da rachet knife to 'em, yah? Scar 'em up reel fine. They's ina big choble now, bwaaay." The man paused to light another of his malodorous cheroots, then turned and started barking incomprehensible orders to the waiting troops. However thick they found his patois, however, they quickly learned to get to their feet, ready their weapons, and move in the direction the huge man pointed. Leaving Seth to muse wryly over just who it was that was in 'big trouble'.

Seth Garrick and his Company of the Twisted Blue Rose had managed to break into the clearing just as the lizard men started appearing around the hills. Seth could see two salamanders, the living artillery of the lizardmen, in the middle of a large, low mesa in the southeast corner. Between the two were four enormous kroxigors, huge bronze axeheads glinting light off of their green scales. Further south and east were more skinks, deployed to protect the salamanders. At the western edge of the mesa, near the center and southern edge of the clearing a group of bright yellow saurus waited behind a writhing mass of snakes and other reptiles. More saurus, two large phalanxes of them waited further west behind another group of skinks, ones who's mottled skin seemed to make them hazy, even out in the open.

Seth realized they were still moving steadily in pursuit, rather than rushing to attack. Seizing the advantage, he signaled his troops forward to engage the enemy as quickly as possible.

The Alchemists of Dirz, fearsome man-insect warriors sped forward on the far left to threaten the nearest salamander. For reasons clear only to the Battle Standard Bearer and the bugmen (perhaps they didn't mind the smell of burning weeds), Big Smoke had joined their ranks and proceeded forward, whooping at the top his lungs, 'Skankin SKANK, mon. Skankin' Skank'. An enormous glow surrounded the warrior, arcing electricity that seemed poised to shatter the kroxigor regiment, but without warning the glow faded and the reptilian giants remained unscathed.

The Company's ragged band of harpies followed along slowly behind, as always ill-prepared to lead any melee, waited back, just behind the Dirzians.

In the center and right, things had not proceeded so smoothly. The chaos knights rode eagerly ahead to menace the other salamander and threaten the kroxigors, but were thwarted as the writhing jungle swarms maneuvered in front, forming a living wall between the heavy cavalry and their victims. The spawn lumbered awkwardly forward flanked on it's left by a pack of chaos hounds. The beast seemed unable to get its bearings, confused perhaps by the sudden lack of trees, shuddering to a halt suddenly near the center of the clearing. Seth and his retinue, the Violent Fems, marched forward, halting near the puzzled spawn so it might better orient itself. Darth Vader brought his regiment forward as well slightly west of Seth, allowing enough room for a small pack of chaos hounds to bounce through the gap between the warrior regiments, eager to maul the skinks they could smell just ahead.

With a horrible thwipping sound, the entire pack of hounds dropped bonelessly to the moist loamy earth of the clearing. The squeaky hissing noises Seth heard immediately afterward could only be the skinks celebrating their victory. The warrior's breath caught in his throat as both salamanders fired wads of poisonous phlegm into the Chaos Knights, but the mounted warriors emerged unhurt. The purple and blue saurus regiments slithered forward, promising bronze death to anyone charging the skinks in front of them.

Finding a moment of courage the harpies moved in and struck at the left salamander, killing one of his handlers and wounding it slightly. The alchemists followed behind, preparing to receive the kroxigor charge next turn. The remaining hounds wheeled and sped for the left, hoping to take the kroxes in the flank when then charged the alchemists. More satisfyingly, but more uselessly, the chaos knights slammed into the jungle swarms blocking their path to more important prey, smashing aside one scaled lump, and carving a huge chunk out of another. One of the knights fell heavily from his mount, poison having found its way through his armor.

On the left the kroxigors smashed their way into the alchemists, smashing seven into the ground with their heavy weapons. The warriors struck back, but only manage to slay one of the monsters. The jungle swarms were cut back, only one large snake, remaining, but enough to stop the Knights from charging onto the mesa and the units waiting there. Venomous darts from the skinks protecting the salamanders sent the harpies into panicked flight, where they are cornered and cut down by a lone skink shaman. Worse, the lizard artillery fired on the chaos hounds, sending them fleeing. The alchemists would fight the kroxigors alone.

The chameleon skinks moved straight forward and past both blocks of chaos warriors. Problem for later, thought Seth nervously, watching as the two saurus phalanxes move forward to engage his warriors directly. The General's blood leapt. At last, real combat awaited. The Fems surged forward, flanked on the right by Vader and his troopers, on the left by the spawn. An audible crack echoed across the field as the largest regiments on the field smashed into each other at full speed, Seth taking the Purple, the spawn at its flank, while Vader hammered the Blue.

As the last of the swarms fell, the yellow saurus struck, cutting into the chaos knights even as they prepared to charge. The combat was inconclusive, but slowly the numbers of the saurus began to tell. The knights fell back, trying to reorganize and strike back. Vader, despite killing a saurus champion in a challenge, was cut down by the ruthless saurus warriors. The ranks of the saurus pressed down, and the Stormtrooper regiment began to fall back to the north and west corner away from their persecutors and the remainder of the chaos army.

Seth could feel the battle begin to fall apart, even as the Purple regiment shuddered and cracked beneath the combined might of his warriors and the spawn. Their will to fight broken, the lizardmen fell back, but the hungry blades of Seth and the Fems would not leave them be. The fleeing reptiles were cut to pieces, and when the green blood ceased to spray Seth found himself helmet to snout with a lone Skink shaman who could not have been more unhappily surprised.

Back on the left, the alchemists continued to weather a ferocious pounding, until the kroxigors showed a vicious gleam of intelligence and struck simultaneously at Big Smoke. The warrior came apart in a shower of gore, causing the bugmen to retreat in confusion. But the Kroxes cold blood was up, and the Alchemists of Dirz could not escape. Worse, the Banner or Wrath fell into the lizard's scaly hands, and as they wheeled about, Seth and the Fems came suddenly into view.

Seth could see across the battlefield from the mesa he'd finally reached. The knights were trying to hold but were hard pressed and losing ground. The spawn had tried to turn and help them, but had been pincushioned by ambushing skinks. The leaderless Stormtroopers were also falling back, trying to rally, and then being charged again by the Blue saurus regiment. Then without warning a massive bolt of lightning smashed into his own regiment, followed immediately by venomous fire from the salamanders from behind. So close, but impossible to reach. His own warriors dropped like scythed wheat, even as he hacked the shaman to bits.

"I think that's about enough."" he muttered out loud. Tough luck for our employer, but his gold is lost, and I'm utterly lacking a sense of integrity dictating I need to be lost with them.

He seized his musician's pipes from her shredded corpse to sound the shrill notes for retreat. He couldn't see anyone alive to follow his orders, but as Leader of the Company the responsibility was his.

Then he saw the not-so-distant blue glow of electricity about to be discharged, like a vengeful finger of a wrathful god. Responsible leader? Yah right. He tossed the pipes aside and dashed into the trees, praying the lizards would be more interested in getting their gold back than chasing a lone human around the jungle.

He sprinted a short distance, then looped back wide, eventually moving north. Now if he could just get back to the ships before the lizards are done filleting the windbag, a few judicious lies about fate of the remainder of the expedition, and a dire warning or two about the army moving in the direction of our landfall, he just might be able to put this green leafy sweatbox behind him...

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